


What Daemons We Carry

by ch1ps0h0y



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Canon - Anime, Canon - Manga, Canon - Movie, Canonical Character Death, Ensemble Cast, F/M, Gen, High School, Murder Mystery, Organized Crime, Secret Organizations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-05 08:25:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 64,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3112877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ch1ps0h0y/pseuds/ch1ps0h0y
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following an eight-year hiatus, internationally-renowned jewel thief, Kaitou Kid returns to the world stage. His true identity? That of high-school student, Kaito Kuroba! Following in his late father's footsteps, Kaito dons the mantle of the infamous magician-thief to find his father's murderers. Together with his daemon, Kozare, they also chase down and aim to destroy the elusive gem said to bestow immortality every ten thousand years: Pandora.</p><p>(A His Dark Materials AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Every Flight Begins With a Fall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Names follow 'surname/first name' format in speech, 'first name/surname' in prose. The latter format is also used occasionally by Hakuba, as he is a native English speaker.

It began, as it invariably did, with the daemon.

Or perhaps it was more accurate to say it began with Kaito, since as one's daemon and oneself were inextricably linked, the only difference between the two was a technicality.

_Thwack!_ "Kaito! Get back here!"

The evasive youth being yelled at, one Kaito Kuroba, danced out of the way of his friend and classmate's chosen cleaning mop-turned-flyswat and stuck out his tongue.

"What're you so mad about, Aoko? S'not like I peeked at your underwear myself!" Kaito shot back. He leaped on to a desk as her mop sliced through the space he'd formerly occupied. Then he backflipped as a growling half-grown sun bear barrelled into said desk and sent its user's books and stationery flying. There was a weak "Hey!" of protest but the class already knew not to get involved in the duo's spats. Even the maths teacher had resigned herself to trying to continue the lesson while havoc reigned at the back of the classroom.

"It might as well have been!" shrieked Aoko, brandishing her mop at him while her bear daemon echoed agreement in more guttural tones. "You and Kozare are as bad as each other!"

Kaito managed to spring up into a corner of the ceiling and remain there without any apparent support other than his arms and legs. His voyeuristic daemon, a crow, flew over to settle on his shoulder. The pair watched smugly as Aoko and her daemon glowered at them from below.

"Can't use your tricks to escape now," Aoko gloated, jabbing the mop head at him. "You're nothing like Phantom Kid."

Kaito scoffed. Kozare cawed, "Phantom Kid?"

"That thief that uses magic," growled Aoko's daemon, Kinko. "He was in the news this morning."

A thief that used magic? "Hah!" Kaito laughed loudly. The invisible thread suspending him snapped. With a yelp, he plummeted to the ground on top of a classmate but sat up almost immediately, sporting a pair of glasses and a bewildered expression. Kozare flapped to the rafters to avoid Kinko's follow-up swipe.

"You think a cheap disguise like that will trick me?" Aoko exclaimed, advancing on the terrified boy. They stuttered a denial, hands waving frantically.

"Well, excuse me for using cheap disguises," Kaito's affronted voice came from the front of the class, beside the teacher. Heads angled sharply towards him in surprise, glancing between Kaito and the boy whom Kaito had slipped a mask of his own face over as he had fallen - now removing it to stay Aoko's wrath. "That thief has got nothing on me though," stated the magician confidently.

"Oh yeah? I bet you can't catch him," Aoko threatened, advancing towards him. Kinko prowled towards Kaito from another side, boxing the magician in. "Not even my dad can, and he's been chasing Kid for almost twenty years."

Kaito grinned, all sharp teeth. "Oh yeah? Think this thief and I are due a meeting then." Next to him, their maths teacher was trying to scold them on their behaviour ("Now that's quite enough--!"). With a flourish, Kaito produced a rose from his sleeve, bowed, and offered it to her. "Miss, I'm afraid I must take an early leave." He kissed the back of her hand.

The woman blushed. The armadillo on her desk curled up and hid its face. "Well, if you must..."

Kaito turned back to Aoko, the razor smile back on his face. "I'm gonna catch that thief for you. Just wait and see!"

Kinko lunged at Kaito. But the magician snapped his fingers and enveloped them in a cloud of pink smoke and confetti, causing Kinko to plough into coloured paper rather than a pair of legs. The sun bear growled, shaking himself while Kozare cackled and winged out the window to join her partner. Aoko's vocal curses, as well as a general smattering of applause and awe, followed them.

 

Phantom Thief Kid, or 'Kaitou Kid': an international jewel thief who had debuted in France eighteen years ago and had gone on to commit well over one hundred thefts spanning sixteen countries including Japan (mostly Japan). Just over one hundred and forty jewels had been stolen up until Kid's disappearance eight years ago. An impressive number. It averaged at one or two a month, Kaito calculated. Modus operandi was to send advance notice of the theft and then return the target once it had been successfully purloined. But that begged the question of why the thief bothered to steal in the first place. The thrill? The challenge?

Last night Kaitou Kid had reappeared, making off with a diamond from the safe of one of Japan's larger banks. The notice hadn't become public until the theft found its way into the morning news. The bank's owner had thought it was a hoax; the police were cautiously treating it as real.

Kaito leaned back in his chair as a stream of a popular TV panel show played on his laptop. Kozare was perched on his shoulder and equally attentive as the panel members discussed the thief's upcoming heist that night.

"Dad died eight years ago," he commented softly, spinning his chair around to gaze at a full-length portrait of a suited man with a kind smile: his father, Touichi Kuroba, world-famous magician and regarded as the best in Japan. The picture depicted him in his usual stage costume, holding a top hat that had his white doves, streamers, and confetti bursting out of it to the delight of an invisible audience. Kaito couldn't ever look at the image without feeling a twinge of loss.

"'Nothing like Phantom Kid', huh?" he snorted, sullen, interlacing his fingers behind his head. "Not to be cocky, but the only one in the world who's a better magician than me is dad."

Kozare cocked her head. She glided off his shoulder and approached the portrait, bobbing by the base of the frame. "Did you hear something click?" she asked.

"No." Kaito heaved himself out of his chair and strolled over to the picture. Strange noises in a magician's household usually meant-- "Woah!"

A light push and the picture which he'd thought had been firmly affixed to the wall rotated inwards. Caught off-balance, Kaito tripped over the ledge and fell into the cavity to the startled caw of his daemon. He found himself tumbling down a set of stairs, landing hard on his back with a solid 'oomph'. The picture guarding the secret room whirled on its hinge before settling into place with a quiet thump.

Kaito was left in darkness with Kozare's panicked calls through the panel providing his only point of spatial reference.

"Kaito! _Kaito!_ "

"I'm fine!" he called back. Sporting several new bruises perhaps, but no real harm done. He heard muffled, frantic wingbeats and dull thuds as the corvid threw herself at the picture, trying to push the panel open again. Kaito was more focused on the ratcheting and clanking that had begun scant seconds after his fall through the secret door, however. In a few seconds, fluorescent lights flickered on and illuminated a cluttered workshop stuffed full of props and bric-a-brac. Mirrors, top hats, models of planes and a birdcage... Wait, was that a car?

Kaito jumped as a nearby cassette player crackled to life.

"Kaito, long time no see."

His father's voice. Kaito crawled over to the player as the voice began to break up. "It's time you learned the truth. You see, I'm... -ly... K... tou... -id."

His father's voice went to static and Kaito stopped the player. When he popped open the cassette holder, he saw the magnetic tape had become tangled in the spokes. "Damn it." He tugged gently and managed to extricate both cassette and the mess inside, but he could tell from one look that it was beyond saving. "Well, it _is_ eight years old," he muttered as he plucked at the brown, plastic spaghetti. Kaito mourned the loss of his chance to hear his father's last message to him.

From somewhere above, he heard something detach. His head whipped around in time to see a white, silk top hat and a mantle land on the floor in a small cloud of dust. Two distinctive pieces of a costume that he'd seen just minutes before on his computer.

"What the--?" There was no way... But when he picked them up they were certainly real. No tricks, no sudden puff of smoke or glitter rain.

A loud, distressed caw from upstairs derailed his train of suspicion for the time being. Hat brim and mantle clutched in one hand, he brushed his pants down, jogged back up the stairs, and pushed open the panel. A flurry of black feathers accosted him as soon as he stepped out.

"Whatcha find? Whatcha find?" Kozare knew her other half had found something shocking. She spotted the white costume a second later and her clawed feet tugged frantically at Kaito's shirt. "That's the costume on the other side of the picture!"

The panel was still ajar. Kaito flipped it around until the back was facing him. What he saw depicted froze him to the spot.

Footsteps on the stairs outside his room. His mother peered in and took in the situation at a glance. Smiling, she leaned against the doorframe and gave the portrait a look that could only be described as loving.

"It's about time you knew."

 

His father was the Kaitou Kid. _His father was the Kaitou Kid._

Kaito's thoughts ran almost as fast as his legs were carrying him over the rooftops that night. He was a flash of white fabric and moonglow, weaving past the vents, feet pounding concrete as he all but flew to the scene of Kid's latest notice. Kozare was a dark blot at his side easily keeping pace on her wings. If his father had been the Kaitou Kid, who was the imposter who had revived the world-renowned thief's name?

He had to know for sure. Even if they were only a copycat, even if they had no relation to his father, he could at least stop them before they ruined the thief's reputation through greed.

Ono Bank was only two rooftops away.

The police had their attention on the front of the building, making it easy for him to circle around to the back and enter from the rear. Policemen were scattered sparsely on the lower floors, the number barely enough to keep each corridor secure. They were more highly concentrated at the place where the bank's jewel was being kept and Kaito found himself having to throw a black cloak over his costume in order to avoid their eyes.

Once past the main throng he took the emergency stairs to the roof. There, he found a spot to sit and checked his watch. Five minutes to the promised time. More than enough to set up a few precautions while he waited.

There was little doubt in his mind that the copycat thief would ascend. If Kid was a magician even half as good as him, they'd avoid a drawn-out police pursuit and make a quick getaway. 'Never use the same trick twice', was the first rule any magician learned, so it followed that Kid would - should - do the opposite of what had occurred the previous night, escaping on foot after terrifying the guards with his 'no body' trick.

That, and there was a rope tied to the safety railing which trailed down over the edge, waiting for someone to climb it.

On his shoulder, Kozare hopped from claw to claw impatiently. A hush had fallen over the vicinity, like the night, the moon, even the stars themselves awaited the arrival of the phantom thief. The wind, always present at this altitude, streamed the white mantle around his slightly ill-fitted costume.

"Fifteen seconds," Kozare croaked. "Fourteen..."

Thirteen, twelve... Kaito stood and strode to the edge of the skyscraper, gazing out at a light-speckled city. Kozare continued to count down the seconds.

"Three, two, one--"

"Zero," he whispered.

At first there was silence: an eerie, anti-climactic pause where he and Kozare held their breaths, waiting for something to break it. One lengthy minute passed and then--

Kaito sucked in a sharp gasp as glass shattered somewhere below. The glittering shards rained upon the policemen stationed at the bank's entrance, fragments reflecting the red, flashing lights of waiting patrol cars. Kaito glimpsed a white, cape-clad figure falling amongst them and winced as it smashed on to one of the car roofs.

"Ow," Kozare commented. "Hope no-one got hurt." Kaito hushed her with a finger to his lips and pointed down. The rope beside them had grown taut; Kid was coming up.

Kaito backed up a few steps into the shadow of a large vent, assumed a relaxed posture, and waited.

A gloved hand made its appearance on the roof edge, shortly followed by a grinning mask. The thief was in uniform - police uniform, that is - which was not a surprise given that Kaito and Kozare had just witnessed a dummy falling to its 'death' some moments ago. The dark blue uniform blended seamlessly with the night sky. Kaito waited for Kid to haul himself to safety over the edge before stepping into the pale light cast by the fat crescent moon.

"I've been waiting, Kaitou Kid," he sang teasingly, grinning behind his own mask as the thief startled. Kaito's eyes flicked around but caught no sight of the man's daemon. Perhaps it was a small type that kept itself hidden in folds of clothing. Kozare dug her claws into his shoulder. He corrected his assumption a moment later when he heard a low growl emanating at his back. Not small, then. A thug wearing a dead thief's costume? He didn't like to stereotype, but most common criminals were accompanied by aggressive dog daemons.

Poker face, he told himself sternly. His next words were scornful. "Throwing a dummy down while you climb up is such a simple trick! Hardly worthy of the name 'Kaitou Kid'!"

"In that case, what about this one?" the imposter shot back. The white cape bloomed from one pocket and obscured their body briefly. When they let it billow out, their entire body from the neck down, excluding their feet, had disappeared.

Kaito stiffened in shock. Behind him, the other Kid's daemon coughed a low laugh. Kozare gave his ear a sharp pinch with her beak. "Focus!" she hissed. Kaito mentally shook himself and narrowed his eyes at the thief.

Obviously it was impossible to truly make one's body disappear. Something was either concealing the body or there was a trick that made his eyes think he was seeing a head, two hands, two feet, and a cape attached to nothing. He just had to stay calm and figure out what it was. Dark cloth? Definitely not; he'd see it rippling. Besides, he could clearly see the cityscape through the guy's body. From various little moving details he could tell it hadn't simply been painted on.

...Wait, was that the right view of the city from this angle?

His prolonged silence gave the other thief a boost in confidence. "Well? You can't see my body, can you?" they proclaimed triumphantly.

Kaito forced out a derisive laugh, stalling for time. "Hah! Who're you trying to fool? Amateur!" And there! A brief gleam reflected off the empty space their body should have been and into his eyes. Once he saw that, everything fell into place.

"What?!" Outrage. The imposter rushed him, gloved hands reaching for his head. They were fast, but the speed at which Kaito drew his card gun trumped them. The teen got out one shot directly to the imposter's mask, causing them to flinch and stumble past him. The next card sank into one of the mirrors worn all about the other Kid's body, almost - but not quite - allowing them to blend seamlessly into the night sky. To think Kaito that had almost been fooled. His father must be shaking his head at him from above.

Glass shattered for a second time that night, a gentler cascade on the rooftop compared to the fake Kid's dramatic exit below. It was followed by a hollow clatter as the two halves of their mask fell apart, split by Kaito's razor card.

"If you wear a mirror around your body," Kaito explained, "in the dark, it looks like you've disappeared. A basic trick!" Well, basic once you knew how it worked. Hardly flawless either, given how Kaito had uncovered it. If it had been him--

"It can't be. Y-you're..." The imposter sounded shocked. Kaito dragged his thoughts back to the present. As they turned towards him, their voice dropped to a hoarse whisper, words almost snatched by the wind. "Master Touichi?"

_Huh?_ How did they know his dad's name? Kozare shrugged when he shot a glance at her - she didn't know either. The Kid copycat had fallen to his knees and was stretching a trembling hand towards them.

"A-and Sakuya. So you were alive all this time!" They removed their top hat, revealing a semi-bald head of greying hair and a wizened, moustached face framed by rounded glasses. "It's me: your faithful servant, Jii Kounosuke! Don't tell me you've forgotten after only eight years!"

"Jii?!" both Kaito and Kozare squawked. Jii, his father's magic assistant. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen the man since his father had died.

"I had always thought you'd been murdered eight years ago, during that 'accident' in your magic performance," Jii rambled, eyes tearing up. "For these past eight years I've been growing angrier and angrier. And then I finally decided to dress up as Kaitou Kid and lure your killers out."

Kozare took wing, knocking off the mask as Kaito lunged and grabbed the old man's shoulders without thinking, without thought to the strength in his hands as they shook the elder man. "What? Dad was murdered? Who? Who did it?!"

The daemon behind them, a large German Shepherd, had ceased to growl. The wind changed direction and swept Kaito's scent towards her. Ears pricked in alarm and she turned her dark muzzle to Jii. "Kou, it's not Master Touichi," the daemon said urgently. "It's the young master, Kaito!"

"Young... master..." Jii went paler than could be credited to the glow of the moon. The fingers clutching his hat dug into the brim and the old man sank back on his heels. Realisation at the mistake he had made, at the secret he had inadvertently let slip, robbed him of speech and deflated his figure.

Kaito was trembling. He had stopped shaking the old man but he didn't let go. "I've got one more question, Jii-chan. And you'd better answer me." Although he'd already heard it once from his mother, confirmation from Jii, long-trusted partner and assistant to the great Touichi Kuroba, would engrave the fact in hard stone.

He took a deep breath. "Was my dad... really Kaitou Kid?"

His figure threw a long shadow over Jii. It made the man's face almost inscrutable, but Kaito could see the contortion of anguish on the faithful servant's features. He could hear his daemon whining in response to Kozare's harsh call. The pause alone was enough to give Kaito his answer but he still waited. He had to hear it from Jii's lips.

It was a long time coming. "...Yes."

The teen closed his eyes. His grip relaxed on the old man's shoulders. Kaito slowly straightened and strode past Jii with hands shoved into deep magician's pockets, poker face slamming down hard on the turbulence of shock, betrayal, anger, and disbelief elicited by that one word. The affirmation stung. It rewrote his entire mental image of his father, the calm and serene Touichi Kuroba who had delighted audiences with sleight of hand and magic tricks since the young age of twenty. Kaito clenched his fists as he listened to the police helicopters approaching the roof. The heavy whir of their blades chop-chopping the air was audible long before their black shapes became distinguishable to human eyes.

Kozare was not bound by his restraint. She screamed her anguish to the dark sky and wheeled sharply in the air. Kaito felt each cry as a sharp pain to his heart. His hand clutched at his chest and he felt his breath come short. As he choked and doubled over, face twisted in agony. Jii's daemon sensed something amiss and was at his side in a trice.

"Young Master Kaito!" she barked. The rest of her words were drowned by the helicopters' approach as well as that of the land-bound Task Force pounding up the emergency stairs.

"Don't call me 'young master' anymore," Kaito said tersely, straightening as Kozare veered towards him. She all but collapsed in his arms as the wind whipped into a gale. Kaito had the presence of mind to fling up his mantle as one of the helicopters shone a flood light on the roof, scouring the area with harsh, white light. His mantle was large enough to hide both Jii and his daemon in shadow. The roar of the helicopter motor almost drowned out his next shout.

_"I'm the Kaitou Kid!"_

He detached the cape from his shoulders, letting it fly back against the elder pair. "Run, Jii-chan, Chuuta!" he yelled, trusting them to know how to effect a basic disappearance from the 'stage' as he sprinted for the roof edge. Policemen burst out of the stairwell not a few seconds later.

"There he is!"  
"Kaitou Kid!"  
"You're not getting away!"

Kaito vaulted over the safety rail and paused on the precipice, Kozare struggling feebly in the crook of his arm. Even though moving hurt, even though he wanted to curl up and shut out the world, he was the Kaitou Kid now. Phantom thieves could not allow themselves to be caught. But there was nowhere to hide on the completely flood-lit rooftop.

He threw himself off the building.

Shocked gasps, rapid footsteps. He caught pale faces peeking over the edge to see where he had disappeared to. Except after the blinding glare of their spotlights, they couldn't see the dark chute which he opened to slow his descent.

Only a white rose remained where he had stepped off to show that the elusive thief had ever been there.

It was approaching one in the morning by the time Kaito began to stumble home, wheezing and cradling Kozare's limp body. He had shed the Kaitou Kid costume and returned to civilian clothes out of sight of street cameras. Sharp, shooting pains in his heart made it hard to pretend that nothing was wrong as he caught a late train home (some shot a look of concern at his daemon), but he held on to his rictus of a smile up until the point when he unlocked his front door and fell into the entranceway.

"Mum," he gasped. The door clicked shut behind him. The lights were off. Silence reigned. Abruptly, he remembered that tonight was when she had been due to fly overseas. She had stayed long enough to fix him dinner earlier, after dropping the bombshell of his father's secret identity on him, and then had blown him a kiss goodbye and left the house with suitcase in tow. With a groan, he kicked off his shoes and staggered upright. He somehow managed to climb the stairs to his room and collapse on his bed. He was careful not to fall on top of his daemon.

"Kozare, you okay?" he mumbled, fingers stroking the crow's glossy neck.

"Kinda," she croaked back. "How 'bout you?"

"...Still in shock." Kaito rolled on to his back. Breathing. Breathing helped. He rested an arm over his eyes. "Dad was murdered," he whispered. "Someone murdered him. I have to find out who. I have to become Kaitou Kid in dad's place. I have to draw them out by... stealing. Using what he taught me." Because from Jii's actions tonight, that was what had attracted his father's killers. Because there was no question that he wanted the culprits put away for a long, long time, and who amongst those in law enforcement would believe a teenager that started insisting his dad's death was murder after eight years?

The crow shivered as she picked herself up. She wobbled but managed somehow to reach her usual perch on the bed's headboard. "Secrets," she rasped. "Magicians and secrets. Can't tell. Can't give away. Can't let anyone know."

"Right," Kaito exhaled. The pain in his chest was manageable now, lessening as he came to terms with the upending of everything he had thought he'd known about his father. "Especially not Aoko." He remembered late nights comforting her with small magic tricks until her dad could come home, exhausted after pursuing the phantom thief. Those memories were nothing more than dim recollection - a child didn't concern themselves with thieves and jewels and crime. Especially not one who had a mother to turn to if his father happened to return just as late and just as tired. What he did remember was the loneliness in Aoko's face and his own instinctive need to turn it into a smile.

Aoko hated the Kid. To her, it wasn't only jewels that the thief was stealing: it was precious time with her father. She had been much happier after the thief disappeared and Inspector Nakamori began spending more time at home with his daughter. Kaito hated that he would end up taking that away from her once more.

1.21am, the digital clock on his bedside table read. He had to sleep if he wanted to be rested for school tomorrow. Kaito sighed and curled up on his side, dragging the blankets up to his chin. He was too tired to change out of his clothes or replace the costume he'd taken from his dad's secret room. Too tired even to go through his usual bathroom routine.

"G'night, Ko," he murmured sleepily. The crow murmured something back. Within seconds, Kaito and his daemon were fast asleep.

 

Morning greeted him with a face full of warm fur and soft ears flickering against his hair. Kaito curled his fingers into the short hairs and turned his face inwards, mind still clinging to the wisps of an unsettling dream.

"Go 'way, Yudzuki," he mumbled as a damp nose tickled his tear-streaked cheek. His mother's daemon often snuck in when he had bad dreams as a child. Still did, sometimes. No, wait, his mother was out of the country by now. And otters didn't have such coarse fur.

Kaito unwillingly forced his eyelids open a crack, peering at the animal. His blurry vision noted dust-brown fur shaded with black and white hairs.

"The hell," he muttered as he sat up rubbing both his eyes and the dried tears from his face. He shot the animal another look - some sort of canid, he guessed. It looked vaguely like a fox and a wolf-- oh, a coyote? But he didn't know anyone with one as a daemon, let alone someone whom he knew intimately enough that their daemon would simply sprawl over his pillow. "Kozare- where...?" He twisted around but could see no sign of the crow.

The coyote stirred. Its tail twitched, legs folding beneath its furred body as the daemon yawned and lifted its head with sleep still in its slanted eyes. Kaito gaped, because he all at once knew, with certainty, who the daemon was. "Kozare...?"

"Mm, morning," the daemon attempted to get up, except some part of her apparently still thought she had wings. Kozare tripped over her feet and rolled awkwardly off his pillow on to the mattress, an almost comical look of surprise on her new face. "Wha-?" Her legs, tail, and ears wriggled and twitched as the daemon tested out her altered appendages.

"I thought you'd settled last year," Kaito said faintly, reaching out to the ruff of her neck. The hairs there were softer, longer. Kozare seemed to enjoy attention there just as she had as a bird if her body language was any indication. Canids were so much more expressive than birds. It made him smile a bit.

"Yeah, well, so did I. Being a crow felt right." Kozare stretched out and rested her head on his lap. "Maybe last night took more of a toll on us than I thought it would."

Kaito's fingers stilled. Without warning, he gathered her in his arms and hugged her tightly, sobbing into her fur. Kozare struggled a bit and whined in surprise. That soon turned to sympathy as tears began leaking once more from the corners of his eyes - tears she obligingly lapped away with her new tongue.

"I'm scared, Ko," he whispered. "It's not like walking up on stage and hoping nothing goes wrong. If I screw up and get arrested, if the people who killed dad find us--"

"We just have to be so good that they'll never catch us," Kozare interrupted. "Not the police, not Touichi's murderers - not anyone." She placed her head on Kaito's shoulder and continued in more subdued tones. "It's not going to be like before, when magic was fun and amusing and wonderful," she said. "People are going to be hurt. Maybe not right away, but Kaitou Kid is going to hurt people."

Kaito's grip on her fur tightened. A muffled cry sounded against her neck. She continued firmly, "I don't just mean the physical hurt. Think about how Aoko will feel when the thief again steals away her father on the nights of his heists. You already realised this last night. You can't turn away from it if you want to find out who murdered Touichi."

The words, though blunt, were true. Kaito's body shook as he continued to cry - quieter now - into his daemon's shoulder. She bore it patiently, saying no more until her partner had calmed, scrubbed his face with a wrinkled sleeve, and sat back with a shaky breath.

"Chin up, Kuroba Kaito," Kozare said, giving the teenage boy a light butt on the chin. "Yesterday you were a magician, but today you are a phantom thief!"

Kaito gave her a watery grin. He understood now: why his daemon had resettled. They could not return to the blissful, ignorant days where his father's death had been a tragic accident. Accepting that was the first step to moving forward. Accepting that meant tearing his eyes away from the sky and looking ahead, not at dreams but at the future. "You've been watching too much anime," he told her with an unsteady laugh. She grinned. _'And whose fault is that?'_ it asked.

Still as cheeky as she had been as a crow. He took a steadying breath, let it out slowly. "What's that thing my dad used to say? Smiles and laughter are always good--"

"--but never forget your poker face."

The magician-turned-thief allowed himself to smile. "Guess I'd better start practising for school, then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daemons mentioned:  
> Kaito Kuroba - Crow > Coyote, 'Kozare' 子戯  
> Chikage Kuroba - Otter, 'Yudzuki' 遊月  
> Touichi Kuroba - Crow, 'Sakuya' 昨夜  
> Kounosuke Jii - Dog (German shepherd), 'Chuuta' 忠多  
> Aoko Nakamori - Sun bear, 'Kinko' 金子
> 
> Within Philip Pullman's canon, there is no mention of an individual whose daemon has changed after settling. Conversely, there is nothing to say that it could not happen. Therefore I have chosen to assume that it is theoretically possible given a serious enough shock and large, abrupt shift in world-view. Given Kaito's near-idolisation of his father, I decided that the shock was enough to warrant such a change.


	2. To Catch a Phantom Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaito performs his first heist - and it's for Aoko's sake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Loosely follows chapter 2 of the manga. In the original Japanese text, Kaito uses the name 'Clover' for his initial disguise, not 'Kuroba' or 'Groper' as the online scanlations state. There were enough other minor issues that I ended up completely referring to the Japanese while I wrote this.
> 
> **15-01-27 note:** 'Pari no taiyou wa ippai' [the diamond's name] is actually more accurately "The Bright Sun of Paris". Thank you to a friend for assisting in hashing out a nice-sounding translation.)

Although he expected it, Kaito was stunned by the extent the shock from his daemon's changed form was felt. He hadn't expected to walk into school, a coyote at his heels instead of a crow on his shoulder, and not get a few stares obviously. His was a well-known face after all: Kaito Kuroba, magician and trouble-maker, and partner-in-crime, Kozare. But he still wasn't prepared for the attention of every student in his year group on the way to his classroom.

Kozare's settling last year had been met with school-wide relief. When she had still been in the period of fluidity and change, Kozare had never kept to any consistent type of animal or species. One day she might be a mouse running up a girl's leg, another day, a fly slipping through an open window to the change rooms. No-one could predict what she would be next, not even Kaito. And while Kozare's exploits as a crow were hardly any less devious, at least everyone knew who to target for the vanishing locks on doors and theft of shiny baubles.

Which meant Kozare's new appearance had everyone asking one question:

"Is it permanent?"

Kaito didn't have to pretend to be exasperated as he heaved a sigh. "Yes," he said for the umpteenth time that day. "She's not gonna suddenly turn into a cockroach or something, okay?" It was lunch break and Kaito had yet to take more than three bites of his self-made bento. His poker face was hanging on the very edges of his patience and hunger. Kozare, too, was feeling worn by the incessant questions from their classmates' daemons, looking about ready to curl up and pretend to sleep beneath his seat.

Luckily, Aoko and Kinko swept in then. They cleared the curious from his vicinity with a few sharp words and growls. Not that this was an entirely good thing since she plonked her bento on his desk, dragged a seat over to sit on, and pinned him with a frown that managed to look both menacing and worried. Kinko folded himself at her feet, dark eyes gazing at Kozare with concern.

"So," she began, hands pressed to the lid of her lunch box, "what's going on, Kaito?" A haughty glare at the prone cicada on the window sill next to them had the daemon sheepishly flitting back to its other half. The would-be eavesdroppers suddenly became very intent on their schoolwork. Aoko huffed then fixed her glare once more on Kaito. "Well?"

"Well what? Ow!"

Aoko folded her arms as Kaito clapped a hand to his forehead. "Stupid. Daemons don't just change overnight. What happened?"

"Nothing happened!" he snapped back, only half-acting. Kozare punctuated his irritation with the beginnings of a snarl. "Geez, why do you have to be so annoying?" His mask almost slipped when he caught a flicker of hurt in Aoko's expression but it was quickly smothered by her usual fiery temper.

"You don't have to be so rude!" she exclaimed, drawing brief stares from those still in the classroom. "Aoko's just worried about you!"

Kaito snorted and leaned back in his chair, one arm slung over the back while the other hand waved dismissively. "Don't need your worrying. Ko just decided being a crow wasn't right after all, okay? That's all."

There was no response. Resisting the urge to tap his fingers on the back of his seat, his eyes flicked to Aoko. She was frowning at the top of her lunch box, wearing the peculiar stubborn set to her mouth that only surfaced when she was trying to stop herself from exploding at him. At his feet, Kozare had rested her head on her front paws and flattened her ears to her skull. She stared Kinko down as if daring the bear to say anything. Kinko bristled in return, chest rumbling with the threat of a growl. Then he lunged forward to snap at the coyote. His teeth came close to closing on the canid's neck - a warning snap. Kozare didn't flinch but she did cultivate an even more stubborn look. Her claws etched faint scars on the classroom floor as her paws dug in.

The tense stalemate between the two pairs lasted until the bell rang. Kaito sat bolt upright and swore. Their daemons startled.

"Crap, I still haven't eaten!" He began to shovel food into his mouth, ignoring Aoko as she slowly retreated back to her desk with her own uneaten lunch. Kinko lingered a minute, conversing with Kaito's daemon before following suit. Kaito glanced at the retreating bear's back and nudged the coyote with his foot.

"What did he say?" he hissed, keeping one eye on the teacher.

Kozare flicked her tail against Kaito's leg. "Later."

Several hours on, the final bell rang and signalled the end of another school day. Aoko and Kinko hurried off before Kaito could say anything - which hurt more than a mop to the head, if he was honest with himself. He and Kozare took a short detour by Kaito's favourite ice-cream parlour for a well-needed mood pick-me-up. Chocolate, _mm_.

"So spill. What did Kinko say?" Kaito asked, eating while they walked. The summer sun was already beginning to soften the ice-cream and he found himself licking at the cone rapidly to avoid having a mess on his hands.

"You saw the news about the princess from the Duchy of Sabrina, yes?"

Kaito nodded, skirting to the side of the path to stay as much in the shade as possible. "Yeah. What's that got to do with Aoko?"

Kozare sighed. "The princess is coming to Japan in a week's time, and Aoko's father has been asked to form part of the police escort for her. It hasn't been made public news yet but she'll be bringing a large jewel from her country, supposedly the largest in Europe. Since Kaitou Kid has made a reappearance, they're expecting Kid to target it once she arrives."

A slow frown drew Kaito's eyebrows down. "Well, he's gonna have to, isn't he? If it's anything special." Had to be careful not to say 'we'.

"Yes," his daemon said patiently, "but there are certain people in the police department who have voiced concerns about his ability. He was head of the Kid Task Force for ten years before Kaitou Kid disappeared. He never once managed to arrest the thief or prevent Kid's targets from being stolen. Then once Kid returned, he again failed to do either." Kozare laid her ears back slightly. "So Ginzo Nakamori's position hinges on his success at apprehending Kid next week, or at least preventing the diamond from being stolen."

Kaito's pace slowed, his mind finally connecting the dots. "Aoko was already worried for her dad, before she heard about you changing," he said with growing chagrin. "But I just pushed her away when she asked me if anything was wrong." She couldn't do anything about her father's dilemma no matter how she fretted, so she had tried to funnel her frustration towards someone she _could_ help - namely him. Damn it, why did girls have to be so hard to figure out?

"What are we going to do?" his daemon asked. Kaito took a bite of the waffle cone and chewed it thoughtfully.

"Well, wait for some kind of announcement about the princess, obviously," he said after he had swallowed. "Then" - a razor grin - "we'll see if we can't help Aoko's dad keep his job." All of a sudden he blanched. "Oh shit, I gotta return the other thing first!"

 

Bless Jii for thinking ahead. Kaito managed to smuggle the Moon's Eye into Aoko's house by throwing on a 'borrowed' deliveryman's uniform and dropping the padded envelope directly into the inspector's hands when the man answered the doorbell. He tipped his hat to hide a smile then escaped and changed somewhere out of sight of peeping neighbours. He couldn't help but grin as he listened to the incredulous bellow of Aoko's father. Kaito was certain the bang of the Nakamori's front door slamming open to search for the 'deliveryman' could be heard from the end of the street. Snickering to himself, he jogged away and headed back home.

A week following the return of the Moon's Eye saw the papers emblazoned with headlines about the arrival of the foreign princess. Kaito snagged his usual paper, the Ono Shinbun, and unfolded it in class, paying his usual inattention to the teacher and subject of the hour (maths, yawn, easy). He had already read ahead and gone through the homework he anticipated to be set. He would have no time to complete it if he left it until after his heist.

"Japan gives a royal welcome to European princess," he muttered aloud to himself, skimming the main article. Princess Anne, Duchy of Sabrina, staying for one week, yada yada. The gem-- ah, a yellow diamond named the 'Bright Sun of Paris'. There was a picture of the princess wearing the jewel about her neck, her small Siamese cat daemon curled on one shoulder. Kaito gave a low whistle of appreciation, staring at the diamond. "Pretty..."

From the desk beside him, Aoko snorted. "You _would_ say that."

Kaito looked her way, confused. "Huh?" She sighed irritably and turned away with a huff.

He glanced back at the paper - _oh right, the princess_ \- then threw a smirk towards her. "Aoko," he said, "are you jealous?"

She turned bright red with indignation and he started cackling as she whipped back around. "I am not!" she shouted, startling their maths teacher and their entire class.

"Ooh, she's really cute!" he continued to coo, sitting back in his chair with all the smugness of a cat. Although she must know that he was only needling her now, Aoko gritted her teeth and chucked her textbook at his head - which he ducked, of course. It thudded against the window and fell on to his desk (there was a little sigh from the teacher).

"I don't care about her." Her fists clenched and she glared at her desk. If Kaito wasn't imagining things, there almost seemed to be tears in her eyes. "It's just my dad... He was told he'd be fired if he fails to catch Kid tonight," she whispered.

Kaito's emotional mask faltered for a second. He could sense his daemon perk up. Kozare's tail brushed by his ankle, a silent warning. _Act like this is the first time you're hearing it. Act like the old Kaito._

He cackled again, glad that mocking laughter was easier to force than genuine humour. "Figures! Your dad's such an idiot that even if he catches a prisoner, they'll escape!" he crowed.

"Why would you say that?!" Aoko snapped. Kaito almost winced - yep, those were tears in her eyes. "Stupid Kaito!"

_Old Kaito wouldn't have insulted her father_ , a snide voice told him as he flicked his eyes back to the maths problems being written on the board. The grin was a rictus on his face for the entire period.

After school, Kaito and Kozare took their time heading home. Once again, Aoko had flounced off with Kinko and left him and Kozare on their own. Kaito knew that it had been his words earlier that was the cause of today's huff. While they did have a lot of discussion and brainstorming about the upcoming heist due, he wouldn't have minded putting it off to be able to walk part of the way home with her again.

Their route went by the river. A warm, orange glow painted the slopes of the artificial riverbank and its walks, the sinking sun throwing long shadows across grass, concrete and rippling water. This time of the month saw gusts of warm air, only slightly cooler since they came across the river. Kaito could feel the residual heat from the day pressing into the soles of his school shoes, threading its tendrils into the cloth of his uniform.

"She could have at least come up with a better insult," he was in the process of grumbling to Kozare when he spotted a depressed-looking figure wearing a familiar suit sitting on the sloping grass. A round, black and silver-furred daemon hunched beside him in a similar manner. It was the daemon that Kaito recognised first, leading him to the identity of its partner. "Hey, isn't that Aoko's dad?" Part guilt and part curiosity drew him forward.

Inspector Nakamori heaved a loud sigh as the pair approached from behind. "Why the long face, Inspector?" Kaito chirped, leaning over one shoulder.

"Hmm?" Nakamori twisted around to stare at him then his daemon. Kozare met him eye for eye, ears pricked forward, head tilted at the same 'curious bird' angle of her prior form. Another gusty sigh from the man. "Aoko said your daemon had changed, but you wouldn't tell her why. Are you sure you're okay, Kaito-kun?"

Both Nakamoris possessed an admirable selflessness, Kaito thought. He really didn't like deceiving either of them. They were long-time family friends. "I'm fine!" He waved off the concern. Act normal, change the topic. "But what about you, Inspector? That was a pretty heavy sigh just then."

The inspector let out his third of those heavy sighs. "I'm not sure I should worry you with an old man's worries..." He glanced at his honey badger daemon. The badger shrugged and lay down on the grass with a resigned air.

"You told your daughter, Ginzou. I think he already knows," said the daemon.

Kaito dropped his bag on the grass and flopped beside the inspector, pasting on a grin. "If you mean about Kid potentially appearing tonight, then yep! I was gonna go home and drop off my bag then try and get a peek. You're part of the Kid Task Force, right?"

"I might not be much longer," Nakamori said gloomily. "If I'm taken off the investigation I don't know what I'd do. A police detective from France came with the princess' entourage. They say he's the number one detective there, and if he manages to catch Kid tonight..." His face twisted. "That Kid is just so tricky! I can't keep up with his movements, the way he works - anything!" Kaito was alarmed to see that the man was almost on the verge of sobbing.

"Inspector..." _Please don't cry. I don't want anyone to cry because of Kid._ The snide voice came back: _Aoko already does._ As the magician struggled to find something to offer as comfort, Nakamori took a deep breath and rubbed at his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Kaito-kun. You probably don't care about my work problems," the inspector sighed.

Kaito shrugged and smiled. "But you feel a bit better now, right?"

"Hmm." The man sat up a little straighter. "Kaito-kun, could you show me some magic tricks? Aoko always praises them."

_Does she now? Could've fooled me._ "Magic tricks, huh? Sure!" The grin stretched to both sides of Kaito's face as he fished out a pack of cards from his pocket. He knocked them out of their box with practised ease and fanned them in one hand.

"I'll show you a simple one," he said. "I'm gonna make these cards disappear then reappear. Ready?" He turned his wrist so the cards came together as a pack once more, hands making a crumpling, balling-up motion before he displayed them - now empty - to Nakamori. He turned them so the inspector could see they had completely vanished. "Gone, right?" He flourished one hand and suddenly produced half the deck in a fan. A moment later, his other hand did the same. Both the inspector and his daemon were transfixed. Kozare ducked her head to hide a smile.

"Magic, you think? But it actually isn't. My right hand hid the deck up one sleeve, and my left caught half of a deck I slipped in there earlier. So while I'm showing those cards to you" - he repeated the trick, slower for Nakamori to see - "I'm using my right hand to hide the first deck and bring out the other half. I do it quickly so no-one notices."

The inspector uttered a sound of awed comprehension. "I see..."

Kaito smiled and flicked his cards into the air. They rained around him, landing haphazardly on the lawn. "That's all magic is, Inspector. Tricks and sleight of hand. It's about directing attention elsewhere while the trick is performed." He leaned back on his hands, watching a woman jog by with a pram on the lower path. "Come to think of it, Kid is a magician, right? He's probably using the same tricks too."

"Tricks... diverting attention," Nakamori muttered. He trailed off then fell into a hushed conversation with his daemon, discussing ideas and hypotheses regarding Kid's movements for the upcoming heist. Kaito allowed himself a smirk and quietly gathered his cards and his bag. So engrossed were Nakamori and his daemon that they didn't notice the younger pair sneaking off.

"I know they needed the hint, but I hope they don't actually catch us," mused Kozare as they approached their house. Kaito unlocked the door and let them in, she bounding ahead into the entranceway as he toed off his shoes.

"Doubt it. At least, not tonight. I'm expecting him to catch me, so don't worry." Kaito had faith in Inspector Nakamori's tenacity and intelligence. The man just needed a little nudge every now and then. He would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't a little jittery about matching wits with Aoko's dad. If Kaito could be forgiven for a little ego-plumping, the elder Nakamori wasn't in any way an idiot - Kid just had to be one step ahead.

Jogging up the stairs to his bedroom, Kaito pushed open the rotating panel to the 'Kid Cave', as he'd dubbed it. This was going to be his first official heist under the name of 'Kaitou Kid'. Anticipation and excitement thrummed through every limb, forcing him to go through stretches and limbering exercises early to work off the extra energy. Kozare chased her tail a few times as well until he tumbled to a standstill.

"Okay!" He flexed his fingers and exhaled, teeth flashing. "Let's get to it."

The function would be held at the hotel the princess was staying at. Kaito had given himself a crash course in hacking this past week in order to obtain blueprints for the building and then scouted the place in person for unmarked exit and entry points. _That_ had been an exercise in caution, what with police stationed everywhere. Nevertheless, passing himself off as one curious bystander amongst many had worked better than he had hoped and made his task of taking reference pictures easy.

After some consideration, Kaito had decided yesterday that the immense volume of foreign law enforcement personnel expected tonight made sneaking in impractical. Too many chances for a guard to stray past as he was wriggling in through a window or out a vent. Therefore, he would be going in through the front door - which meant a disguise.

"Jii-chan!" he called, drawing out the syllables. His mobile was tucked between ear and shoulder as he inspected various wigs, costumes, and masks. All self-designed; the basic materials had been sourced from a box hidden amongst various styles and cuts of suits and clothing. He'd had to throw out the old cosmetics and buy his own (that had been his first time trying out a female persona and voice, which had been unexpectedly fun). "Jii-chan, has the professor fixed the glider yet?"

"Not yet, young master, I apologise."

"Nah, it's okay." He mentally wrote out one of his plans and took the tie Kozare brought over to him. "I can get by without it tonight. Escaping on foot might work better actually," he mused. Kozare couldn't fly any more, he thought with a pang.

"Ah, young master Kaito? Although the glider isn't ready, there should be some small buttons in the cupboard where your father keeps his costume. They inflate rapidly into balloons once activated. Perhaps you could use them as a distraction."

"Oh really? Thanks, I'll take a look."

Kaito ended the call and checked his watch. Just over two hours to go, yikes, they'd better start getting ready.

"Ko! Come over here, we need to colour your fur."

"Aww."

She bounded forward though and Kaito plucked a bottle of pre-mixed food colouring from the workbench. One messy bath later, his daemon was a lot greyer and darker, closer to the hue of a wolf than a coyote. Kaito took care of the finer shading by brushing in the colour himself until there was no trace of brown left. Once satisfied with the result, he had to quickly wash his hands and bolt back to the hidden room because his watch was showing just over thirty minutes left to the official start of the royal function. It would take twenty of that half hour to get there and settle in amongst the dignitaries.

Kaito grabbed the pieces of the suit he was going to wear as 'Count Clover' - a simple, standard tuxedo, really. He could have gone a bit more elaborate but he wasn't aiming to draw attention from anyone besides the police. Just slip on the mask like so, hunch over slightly to make himself look shorter - tada! One aging aristocrat.

In five minutes, he was dressed up as the count and adjusting his bow tie in the full-length mirror. Kozare, fur now dry, came by after taking final stock of their inventory and raiding the cupboard mentioned by Jii earlier for a few of the instant balloons. Kaito carefully stored everything she brought him in deep magician's pockets - including, of course, his Kid costume - and then paused to stare at their reflections.

Kaito was unrecognisable. An elderly man in his late fifties or sixties stared narrowly from beneath thick, grey eyebrows. The forehead exposed by his mask's receding hairline gleamed convincingly beneath the lights in the workshop. That stiff imperial moustache was holding well too. As long as no-one touched his head or face, the disguise was impeccable. Kozare looked just like a lean, aging wolf too. Perfect.

Kozare nipped his sleeve to stop the little preening session. "We need to go now. The sooner we get there, the better."

"Yes, yes." Kaito coughed and adjusted his voice a bit. He hadn't had to use this skill for a while. "Yes," he said with a touch more imperiousness. The count in the mirror grinned, eyes glittering with anticipation and heart rate inching up a couple of beats per minute.

" _It's showtime_ ," he whispered.

 

Getting into the building was easy. As per the princess' wish, the hotel's ground floor had been turned into an exhibition hall and was open to the general public and intended to allow civilians - under the watchful eyes of what felt like the entirety of Sabrina's police force - an opportunity to see the famous European gem. However, the princess herself was nowhere to be seen when Kaito arrived. Something that not a few people seemed disgruntled about, nevermind the exquisite art on display from her country.

_If they want to keep her hidden then I'll just have to find her_ , he thought, with a mental note to ask Jii if his dad had squirreled away any listening devices. Not that he minded the legwork, except it would burn him out if he had to do this regularly in-between schoolwork and a social life. Far easier to be on top of the police's scheming from the get-go. Making a subtle sign with his fingers to his daemon, Kozare melted into the gathering of humans and daemons and left Kaito seemingly on his own. She kept within a certain distance of course. Actual separation was impossible.

Detective Delon was easily recognisable: a towering blonde man in a cream suit, surveying the gathering with suspicious, beady eyes. Whatever his daemon was, it was too short to see in the crowd at the moment. Kaito harrumphed behind his moustache and pretended to admire one of the many paintings in the hall currently going unappreciated.

The meaty hand landing on his shoulder almost caused him to jump in fright, as did the dangerous voice which greeted him. "Welcome, 'Count' Kaitou Kid," Delon said, looming over him.

_Curtain's up! Keep it together._ Kaito puffed himself up, the very picture of an indignant, elderly man. "How rude!" he exclaimed. "My name is _Clover_! Who on earth are _you_?"

The man smiled. "I beg your pardon," Delon said. "I am Detective Delon. This is Vulprit." At his feet, Kaito finally saw the man's daemon. It was a wolverine, all dark and light brown fur, with lips pulled back to bare her teeth at him.

_Heh. So you two think you can catch me in three seconds, do you? We'll see about that._ The cautious part of him immediately jumped in. _He shoots dead all his targets, don't get cocky._ As the count, Kaito made a show of straightening his suit. He chose to be snippy with his response.

"Hmph! I see. Well, continue your policing then." Kaito strode off, joined a second later by Kozare.

"He put eyes on us," she whispered as they halted by another work of art - a small sculpture this time. "How long should we give it?"

"Another five," Kaito mused, fascinated by the continuous curves of the statuette. "Then we'll launch the first act."

True to his words, they wandered the exhibition hall for another five minutes before Kaito approached a stationary officer for directions to the restroom. It became very obvious they had a shadow as they proceeded there. One male and his canine daemon, not doing a good job at keeping out of their sight.

Kozare vanished into the furthest cubicle to avoid being affected by the next part of their plan. Kaito grabbed a toilet plunger and pressed himself to the wall just next to the doorway. Drawing in a deep breath, he bellowed in the Count's voice. "What do you think you're doing? _Help, somebody help!_ "

" _What's going on?_ " The policeman and his daemon who had been following them came charging in without thinking and Kaito whacked the man hard on the head. The man crumpled to the tiles, followed shortly by his daemon.

Kaito knelt at once to check for serious injuries and dropped a capsule next to the daemon. A fragrant smell filled the immediate area. Cedarwood. It had a soporific effect on daemons that would keep them knocked out even if their human regained consciousness. Kaito divested the policeman of his clothes, hauled him into a cubicle, bound them to the toilet seat, and then began to strip off his own disguise. The clothes were all hung from collapsible hangers on the side of the cubicle, Kaito transferring everything he'd been carrying to the pockets of the police uniform. His gloves were put away last. He had just settled his second mask over his face when the policeman began to stir.

"Ko, help tie me up!" he hissed as he gagged the groggy man, gathered up a coil of thin rope then slipped out of the cubicle. He was careful to close the door behind him so that no-one would see the officer. Kozare came out of her own cubicle for a little while to help pull the knot on his bindings tight before absconding from the cedarwood-scented gas. Kaito sat himself beside the policeman's unconscious daemon, trussed like a prisoner. He drew a deep breath again.

"HELP!" he wailed.

 

Hah! Easy. Far, far too easy.

He left the real Delon dangling from a flagpole, giggling behind one dainty, gloved hand as he hastened to the lifts. The sight of that idiot policeman leaping through the window at the Beaucoup de Soleil had been the highlight of his night. When the 'princess' had pushed open the doors to her suite afterwards, her flustered cry that Kid and Delon had fallen out the window had sent the rest of Delon's men charging into the room and left her alone in the hallway.

"Your shoulders are a bit more angular than hers," the wall beside him commented as the floor numbers for one of the elevators counted upwards.

Kaito shrugged, adjusting the gown's low shoulders and his fake bust. There was a small wince as he jolted the wound on his left breast. He'd been damn lucky the diamond had protected his heart. "Can't do much about that," he said, coughing as he fine-tuned his voice. "But I doubt anyone downstairs will be looking at me that closely once I run out screaming," he tittered.

"Don't get carried away," his daemon warned. "This is the most dangerous part of the plan."

Like being shot at hadn't been dangerous? But he knew what she meant. "I know," he said. The lift announced its arrival with a soft ping. Kaito stepped past the doors and kept them held open for a moment with his finger on the button. "Be quick," he spoke softly to an apparently empty corridor. For the first time that night his voice trembled into the range of scared and vulnerable. He lifted his finger off the button and jabbed the one for the ground floor with a little more force than necessary. The doors shut and the lift began to descend.

'Be quick', Kaito had said. Kozare abandoned her hiding spot as soon as the lift started to move down, rearing up and hitting the button to call a second elevator up with her paw. Not a few seconds later, the tugging began.

One floor apart, Kozare felt only mild discomfort. She paced in a tight, agitated circle to work off the feeling, clamping her jaw shut on a whimper. Kaito was moving further and further away while her lift was taking its time coming up.

Two floors apart, she pressed herself to the carpet and whined at the ache. Her heart cried out for her human partner, growing even more distant as she waited. Curse them both, why had they thought this was a good idea? Here she was stuck on the fourth floor while Kaito was just past the second, and there were layers of concrete between them and no way to physically overcome it.

In her agitation she almost missed the sound of the second elevator's arrival and had to scramble inside before the doors shut on her tail. It took all her will power to force herself to stand and hit the button for the ground level, and then she collapsed back on the floor.

All the stories, films, and personal recounts couldn't begin to describe the agony of having your heart ripped from your ribcage. It was _excruciating_. She and Kaito had never been more than a metre apart in their entire lives. _Hurry up, hurry up_ , she snarled desperately, writhing. Not just for her own sake but for Kaito's, who would surely be feeling the same twist of agony and who had the unenviable task of powering through it for the sake of his act.

Even after her own elevator passed the second floor, the pressure on her heart did not lessen. Kaito would have reached the ground a short time ago and dashed out, shrieking for police as per their plan. Then he had to continue outside to where Inspector Nakamori and his few men had been waiting nightfall. Nakamori who, after their conversation in the afternoon, should notice the princess without her daemon rather than obey his first instinct to dash blindly into the hotel. He would stop her...

Kozare snarled and threw herself against the lift doors. Why couldn't this metal box move faster?! Her partner needed her! If Kaito stopped thinking for one second, let himself slip out of the persona he had to play for a single moment, who knew what might happen? Adrenalin could only keep someone functioning for so long.

_Ping!_ Kozare was all but a grey and white bullet shooting out from the sliver between the elevator's doors. Startled guests weren't sure what they witnessed streaking past their legs - just that it was a daemon and it had somewhere to be urgently.

Kozare slipped past the chaos at the front doors and ducked into the shadow of a row of potted bushes. She couldn't help but whimper in relief spotting Kaito perched atop a lamp post, laughing at the gathered policemen both local and foreign. He was back in the Kaitou Kid attire.

"You have sharp eyes, Inspector. My work is always difficult when you're around!" Kid declared. "I wish they would take you off my investigation!" The magician tipped his hat with a (tight) smile and bowed slightly. "Farewell!"

A short burst of smoke and Kid was gone. While Nakamori and the other Japanese police milled around in shock, Kozare took the opportunity to dash towards the thicket of trees nearby. She all but pounced on the crouched figure hiding there, burying her face in his white jacket until her nose was filled with Kaito's scent and nothing else. She felt warm arms squeezing her in exchange and harsh, heavy breathing against her neck.

"Let's never do that again," came Kaito's hoarse voice.

Kozare nodded fervently. They remained locked in the hug until calls to search the immediate area rang out. Like wraiths, magician and daemon vanished amongst the trees moments before torchlight illuminated the spot where they had sat, leaving the diamond behind in the breast pocket of their most avid pursuer.

 

Closer to midnight, a white-clad shadow slithered over the edge of a balcony of a suburban home. It picked the lock on the sliding door and slipped inside the room with barely a rattle, a mere whisper of rolling metal. Tip-toeing across the carpet, it paused to survey the moonlit room and its gaze fell upon the room's occupants, deep in peaceful slumber. Something of a smile flitted across its face.

A cat yowled outside. Startled, the intruder exited the room post-haste with a rustle of cloth and flutter of cape. The balcony door was locked and slid back into place, the intruder vanishing over the side as the sleeper fussed and rolled on to her back. Silence reclaimed the still night and everything was as it had been before the shadow's entrance.

If, when the girl woke the next morning, she found a blue rose left on her bedside table... Well, only the moon and its shadow could say how it had managed to find its way there.

...

_"He targeted one of the big jewels again. The Bright Sun of Paris."_

_"I know. We've already ascertained it's not Pandora. Keep an eye on him - he's been keeping his thefts to art, precious artefacts, and small gems since his return, but if he targets another large jewel then he must be warned off again. Killed, if necessary."_

_"Yes, sir."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daemons mentioned:  
> Inspector Ginzo Nakamori - Honey badger, 'Ganseki' 頑石  
> Princess Anne - Siamese cat, 'Belmondo'  
> Delon - Wolverine, 'Vulprit'
> 
> (Apparently my brain likes to distract me from the writing I _should_ be doing. Chapter 3 will feature Saguru. This work should begin to splinter off from canon [as if it hasn't already] around then. Apologies to those bored with the near-rehashing of the chapters, I try to write the parts which don't feature explicitly in the manga. The set-up is necessary.
> 
> Also, if you're wondering why Aoko didn't scare Kaito with the large herring - apart from it being utterly incongruous, suddenly showing up with a different daemon after it's supposed to have settled into one shape is a Big Deal. Aoko refrained from scaring Kaito with the fish thinking he had been through some sort of trauma already. Which he had.)


	3. Eliminating the Impossible

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" - Sherlock Holmes, _The Sign of the Four_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A minor change was made to the previous chapter regarding the jewel's name: after discussion with a friend, it was decided the actual name was closer to 'The Bright Sun of Paris' rather than 'Much Sunshine in Paris' ( _pari no taiyou wa ippai_ ).
> 
> I originally meant for this chapter to span the entirety of Saguru's introductory arc. It got far longer than I anticipated however, so I've split it into two chapters. The fic starts diverging from canon here.
> 
>  **Update 15-02-28:** Minor edits made (date of Paris Collection)

Saguru could never make himself like the cameras no matter how often he had to confront them.

It was the flat, fish-eye lenses, dark and impersonal, snapping photos of his every movement like still frames of a movie sequence. The bright flashes ruined what little night vision he had after dusk. The press was not just their name but their nature as well: it wasn't unusual for English journalists and their daemons to cram into what little available space there was and form a blockade as imposing and impassable as any line of shielded riot police.

"Hakuba, what are your thoughts on the case?"

"How did you know who the culprit was?"

Both Saguru and the men of Scotland Yard hated the press with a passion that could not be overstated. Partly because many of the journalists had insect daemons, which added a layer of unnecessary caution when fielding off their attempts to gain premature crime scene access.

"How do Scotland Yard feel about having a teenager's help on an investigation?"

"When did you first suspect the culprit?"

"Hakuba--"

"The truth will always come to light," he interrupted. The hovering insects which had been bombarding him with questions fell back. Their writers a short distance away - but still within earshot - held pen to pad expectantly but the cameras continued to flash. Saguru wanted to sigh at the ache building behind his eyes, but when he was being scrutinised by multitudes of eyes both living and glass, he had a role to play.

"The crime was not premeditated," he told the journalists. "As such, the perpetrator acted impulsively and therefore left behind a great deal of incriminating evidence. From there, it was simple to deduce who the culprit was."

This time the motive had been financial: the culprit's daughter's illness had relapsed and required another round of expensive hospital treatment. The victim had become suspicious when the culprit - the victim's stockbroker - failed to account for the discrepancy between the money they were receiving and the money being earned. A heated argument resulted in an altercation resulting in death. The sentence would mostly likely be manslaughter, but that was not Saguru's call to make.

Motives were illogical puzzles. Nebulous and inconstant, they varied extensively from person to circumstance. The same crux could lead to vastly different outcomes. Working hundreds of cases had not made understanding human reasoning any easier. What drove one person to commit fraud and another to larceny? To murder, even? There was never one answer, never one truth.

As pens began scribbling furiously, daemons pestering him with even more queries, Hakuba turned away and pulled his deerstalker cap low over his eyes. He was done with questions for the night. He was tired, he wanted his bed, and--

"Miss Miller, kindly remove your daemon from my shoulder," he said stiffly, throwing a narrow glance at a woman trying to sneak by the ring of policemen and their canine daemons. She blushed at being caught in the act.

"I'm sorry, Saguru. Gestalt?" Her daemon, a ladybug, did not wait for her to remove him. He whisked back to his other half after a murmured apology.

"How many times do I have to remind you to stay with the other journalists behind the police cordon?" he asked in mild exasperation as he led the two beyond the row of blue uniforms, trailed by mosquitoes, bees, and all manner of insects. A glare sufficed to have them fall back to their other halves. "I am not giving you a private interview, so please do not ask," he added, anticipating and forestalling her next query.

"Oh, come on - we're friends, aren't we?" she protested, pushing a lock of her brunette hair behind one ear. Saguru didn't miss her other hand, clutching what must be a voice recorder in the pocket of her beige duffel. "How many times have I told you to call me Jennifer?"

"It would not be appropriate." Saguru had known Miller ever since he first started detective work. Small cases at first - amateur burglary, missing pets and the like - moving on to more eye-catching, public cases as his name passed through word of mouth and people came to him rather than the other way around. Miller considered it a point of pride that she had broken the news of his first major case and punted him into media headlines.

Saguru spotted the culprit being escorted from their residence. "Excuse me," he told her. He left her behind, meeting the lead detective of the case and their collie-daemon on his approach to the culprit's door.

"Good work as always, Hakuba." Detective Inspector Hamish Fielding grasped his hand and shook it firmly. Saguru made the wry note that he was careful to do it while their bodies and a police vehicle hid the gesture from photographers.

The culprit was being ducked into the back of the second of two police cars on the scene. "I'm really grateful for your help," Fielding continued quietly. "Really."

"It was nothing," Saguru demurred, even though he was pleased with the praise. "However, I do advise you return home as soon as possible, Detective Inspector. Sleeping on the office sofas appears to be bad for your back."

Fielding laughed and knuckled his lower back. His daemon grinned. "Those sharp eyes don't miss a thing, do they? Want me to give you a lift home? I see Miller's still prowling around."

Saguru looked around and saw the woman trying again to wheedle her way past the men in blue. Gestalt was usually a small dot on his human partner's collar, but Saguru couldn't see if he was present at this distance. Saguru checked himself over just in case.

"Yes, that would be most welcome," he sighed, once convinced he was bug-free.

"Call Watson, then. Joan and I will wait in the car for you." DI Fielding hauled himself off to his vehicle, Joan trotting at his heels, while Saguru gave a sharp whistle.

From the first floor, a dark brown shape launched itself off a window ledge and swooped towards Saguru. At the last minute the bird flared her wing and tail feathers and grasped his sleeve with her talons.

Saguru's daemon was a hawk - a Eurasian sparrowhawk to be precise, with dark brown, banded plumage and a pale, flecked underbelly. Not the largest bird of the family; however, she was as fierce and proud as the larger cousins of her species and not a bird to be underestimated. In that last aspect she and Saguru were wholly alike. Saguru was a young detective making a name for himself in London as the 'new Holmes' yet his success could not be attributed to him alone. Kenda - or 'Watson' as she was more commonly known to the public - was a key partner and had helped solve cases using her keen eyes and instinct.

"Thank you for abandoning me to the press," he told her dryly as he carried her to Fielding's car. He slid into the back seat. Fielding nodded at him and pulled down his seatbelt; Joan was already curled on the front passenger seat.

"I thought you handled them well enough on your own," Kenda sniffed, turning her beak up. He poked her breast with a gentle finger.

"We agreed to face them together. I won't allow myself to run from the paparazzi for my entire career."

"You mean me."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Us."

"Buckle up, Saguru," Joan told him as Fielding started the car.

Home was a small estate in the West End, on the outskirts of Mayfair. It was an expensive neighbourhood, affordable only because his parents held top-level positions in their respective fields. Saguru's mother was CEO of an internationally renowned European fashion label while his father was Superintendent General of the Japanese Metropolitan Police. His parents had met during one of his mother's fashion shows in Japan, when Hakuba Sr was merely head of her security detail rather than head of the entire police force. They had married in Japan after several months but his mother had been forced to return to the UK to care for her business. His father had remained in Japan, likewise unable to give up his promising career in the police force, and had left his son to be birthed and raised by his mother in England.

Due to the long distance, Saguru had never felt particularly attached to his father despite yearly visits during the summer holidays. He saw just as little of his mother, busy as she was running her company. She had engaged a wet nurse to care for and rear him since she couldn't herself, and it was to this nurse whom Saguru looked to as a parental figure. More so than either of his biological parents. Saguru was usually picked up by said nurse - governess now, really - on nights when cases ran late.

He and Kenda thanked both Fielding and Joan as they disembarked. The inspector waited until Hakuba unlocked and stepped through the side gate before waving farewell and pulling away with a crunch of gravel under-tyre.

Saguru walked the short path to the front door once he had locked the gate behind him. The door opened before he reached it. An elderly woman with a pair of pince-nez balanced on her nose peered out.

"Saguru! I told you to check your phone regularly. I was about to take the car out and search for you!" she exclaimed, ushering him inside. Her daemon circled him anxiously, teeth latching gently on his coat. He let the dog take his Ulster with a grateful smile.

"I apologise, nanny. You know how distracted I get." He unlaced his boots and left them by the door. The mansion was dark and quiet, the only light coming from the direction of the dining room. His mother was probably sleeping. "Any messages while I was out?"

She hung his coat and deerstalker on a rack by the door. Saguru was ushered into the dining room as she briskly rattled off today's domestic happenings. Kenda flew to the perch beside his chair. A late meal awaited Saguru on the table.

"Your mother is busy with the upcoming Paris Collection. She will be flying to France in two months to prepare for the event. Your father, meanwhile, appears to have his hands full with a new villain. Some bandit or thief or other."

"Thief?" Saguru asked in surprise. "Isn't theft too minor for the Superintendent General's attention?"

"Well," his nanny huffed, "it seems this one is wanted by Interpol. He's stolen jewels all over the world. I heard about him back when you were but an infant - he used to put on such a show for his fans. More magic than theft, really. Whatever he was targeting would always be returned a few days later. No-one could catch him! And then he suddenly disappeared eight years ago, only to turn up again in Japan like he'd never gone away. He was in today's paper; I'm sure I still have it somewhere..."

"Oh, really?" the teen murmured as she bustled off. His daemon shot him a look while he stirred his soup. She knew that intent look, that gleam of interest in his eye.

"When are we leaving?" Kenda asked.

 

"Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. Phantom Thief 1412 managed to evade all police task forces and private security teams dedicated to catching him over his ten-year career," Saguru mused aloud, reading off his mobile tablet while other passengers shuffled into the plane.

Two weeks after he had first heard about the thief, he and Kenda were finally on their way to Japan to try their hand at catching the elusive thief. Doing so had meant cutting short his school year in London Bridge High School and arranging a last minute transfer to a Japanese equivalent, which his father was handling for him.

His governess stowed their carry-on luggage in the compartments above while their daemons made themselves comfortable and secure in the aisle of cubby holes beside them.

Saguru continued, "The net worth of his stolen items is estimated to be almost three hundred million Euros. Including his latest thefts, there have been over 120 cases of thievery with approximately 140 jewels stolen. Fifteen cases occurred overseas; the rest took place in Japan. Overall, twelve countries including America, France, and of course, the United Kingdom, have been affected."

Kenda untucked her head from beneath a wing briefly. "For one man, that is impressive."

Saguru nodded. "With the skill and preparation that he has displayed in the past, he must be a magician by trade. No normal burglar would bother to put on such an extravagant display in order to steal. They would have been caught before long." A folder of police report copies from Scotland Yard lay on his lap. His father had also faxed copies of a much thicker compilation of reports from the Japanese Metropolitan Police department regarding Kaitou 1412 - or Kaitou Kid, as he was more commonly known in the country; these were currently tucked into his leather briefcase. He had read them all in the days preceding their flight.

Pulling up some old, low-quality videos that had recorded the thief's heists before his disappearance, Saguru mentally categorised the thief's physical aspects. Height was about 180cm. Weight was difficult to tell from the grainy image but he estimated it to be between sixty to seventy kilograms from their figure. Gender most likely male. There were no reliable DNA samples or profiles of the thief in any of the case files he had glanced over. There wasn't even a note of what daemon the thief was thought to have since it had never been seen. A veritable phantom indeed. However...

"I really expected it to be harder to find a suspect given the lack of evidence," Saguru commented, pulling up his short-list of likely candidates. It was a list of magicians who were based in or operated mainly around Japan, who had also been known to perform overseas in all countries affected by Kaitou 1412's thefts. Saguru had cross-referenced this with the dates of Kid's heists and come up with only one name. "Touichi Kuroba: made his debut when he was in his late teens, won the Grand Prix at the FISM championships when he was twenty and began an international tour less than a year later. 1412's first appearance was in Paris, a month before Kuroba was scheduled to hold a show there. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a white hang-glider flying away from the Eiffel Tower."

"And then," Kenda continued, "almost a decade later, when Touichi Kuroba died during a public demonstration of one of his new tricks, Kaitou 1412's heists also ceased."

"Yes. What's interesting is that another thief was supposed to be at work on the same night and at the same place that 1412 first appeared." The Phantom Lady, renowned for her horror-style approach and guise. She, like 1412, had sent advance notices before her thefts, but that had stopped immediately after the incident at the Eiffel Tower. It was almost as if she, too, had 'died', except there had been no reports of any corpses - no reports of anyone at the scene of the crime, actually. Just a lot of glass from the broken viewing platform window and a smashed Ducati on the ground below it.

"If Touichi Kuroba was the original Kaitou Kid, the current thief can only be an impostor," Saguru concluded as he switched off his tablet and phone and fastened his seatbelt. The plane's engines had begun to thrum and most of the passengers were now being asked to sit down and fasten their seatbelts. "They should be relatively easy to apprehend."

"Unless Kuroba isn't actually dead," Kenda said dryly, tightening her claws on her perch as the plane began to taxi towards the runway.

The flight from London to Tokyo was over twelve hours long. When not napping, Saguru perused his printouts of the police reports and checked that there was absolutely nothing more to be gained from them. He woke his nanny once they were due to begin their descent towards Japan. Despite wet conditions, the plane's landing was smooth. Saguru waited until the crush of passengers and daemons had thinned before he and his nanny stood to retrieve their luggage.

His first thought upon stepping outside the airport was that it was cold. Well, of course it was, Kenda reminded him sarcastically. It was winter after all. Tokyo at this point of the year was usually blanketed by snow. The temperature was... ah, minus five degrees Celsius according to the weather bureau. Good thing he had brought an extra coat.

"Baaya," he said, switching to Japanese as he shrugged into his third layer, "would you mind going ahead to my father's residence with our luggage? I would like to accustom myself to the city."

"Of course." Her response was also in Japanese. "Do you have your mobile with you? Money?"

After assuring her he did, they hailed a taxi from the front of the airport. Saguru had the driver let him and Kenda off in front of Ekoda station and waved his nanny a temporary farewell. Then he sucked in a deep lungful of the chilly air and exhaled slowly.

Saguru had an ulterior motive for not immediately heading to his father's estate. He did want to walk around the city, yes, but he also wanted to visit the places of some of the Kaitou Kid's previous heists. Kenda took to the air to stretch her wings as he shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his coat and set off for the first location.

Ono Bank. The hotel the princess of the Duchy of Sabrina had stayed at. Jewellery stores. Several museums and galleries. A baseball stadium. Tofu department store. At some locations, Saguru paused to watch recordings where the heists had been public. He quickly noticed something off.

"His targets do not match those chosen by the previous Kaitou. Not even remotely." Saguru felt this only added to his hypothesis that the current Kid was a different person. He reminded himself not to let that blind him to contradicting information. Twist theories to suit facts, not the other way around. "Apart from art and historical artefacts, he has also gone after menial objects such as a baseball, a billiards cue, and a Christmas tree decoration of all things - although that last one was perpetrated by an imposter so I suppose it is an exception.

"His modus operandi is to use simple diversionary tactics rather than theatrics. Certainly nothing I would expect of a prodigious stage magician such as Touichi Kuroba," Saguru finished. More evidence that the current thief was not the man returned from the grave. Not that Saguru had any reason to believe Kuroba wasn't well and truly dead at this point in time.

Furthermore, many of the heists had tended towards the dangerous. Explosions, tying up officers after knocking them out with an implement: crass strategies that Saguru could not help but feel derision towards. Magic shows might occasionally endanger the magician, but he could think of none that endangered the audience as blatantly as this current thief's displays.

Kenda, having flown down to his shoulder to watch the latest recording, added, "He's also a bit shorter and slimmer than Touichi Kuroba."

Saguru tracked back and reviewed a segment where the phantom thief's figure was clearest. "You're right." Then he frowned. "Hold on." Saguru went back to the very first heist, the first appearance of the revived Kaitou 1412. The invisible body made it hard to discern, but... "When he first reappeared, he had proportions roughly matching that of the original Kaitou and wore a mask. However, after the theft of the Moon's Eye diamond, he was shorter, thinner, and wore no mask."

"There are three Kaitou 1412s," Kenda said decisively.

This raised some intriguing possibilities, but Saguru could not do more without his father's assistance. He wanted to look into whether Touichi Kuroba was survived by family or relatives but couldn't investigate that without an official reason.

Thus, with all investigable avenues exhausted for the time being, Saguru took a taxi back to his father's small mansion. The sky had grown dark during his walk and it felt even colder than it had when he had landed. His father still hadn't yet returned home by the time he rang the doorbell. Instead he was welcomed back by his nanny. He was aghast to find she had taken up their bags by herself but she laughingly waved off his protests that she shouldn't have tried to lift such heavy items at her age.

After dinner, while Saguru and Kenda were unpacking, he heard the front door open and shut. Heavy footsteps, shoes being removed, and a deep voice conversing with Baaya drew him out of his room and on to the landing overlooking the foyer. Both his father and his nanny looked up when he appeared.

"Ah, Saguru! How have you been?" his father asked heartily. Compared to the quiet that usually pervaded his mother's home, the loud, jolly tone was a jolt of surprise. Saguru made himself smile as Kenda glided down to greet his father's Irish Wolfhound-daemon.

"I'm well. I apologise for the unexpected visit." Saguru trotted down the stairs and was immediately enfolded in a warm hug. He went stiff for the first second but his father didn't seem to notice.

"I always miss you when you're not around. How's playing detective working out for you over in England? I've seen your name in the paper quite a bit since I last saw you," his father chortled.

Saguru's smile grew tight as Kenda returned to his shoulder. "It's going smoothly. Scotland Yard find my help invaluable."

"I'm sure they do, I'm sure they do!" Chuckling, his father made his way to the kitchen. Saguru followed. "So! You came here to see Kaitou Kid? Think you can catch him when my men haven't been able to?" he asked, extracting a beer from the fridge.

Saguru nodded, pulling back his shoulders and straightening his posture. "I already have a suspect," he said crisply. "However, I would like to look into their family records to be sure. I was hoping for your assistance in that matter, father."

"Of course. Whatever you need." The elder Hakuba beamed. "I hope this Holmes obsession of yours passes before university. It'll be much better for you to study criminology and gain some official recognition."

"We shall see," Saguru allowed through gritted teeth.

 

The next few days were spent readjusting his body clock to the new time zone. Saguru took short naps, brief walks outside while it was bright out, and refrained from drinking tea like he usually would. By the time his father had gotten him permission to view Touichi Kuroba's family record, he felt his mental faculties were functioning normally. He and Kenda visited the city hall and were shown to the records room without a fuss when Saguru's father's name was mentioned.

"Kuroba... Touichi..." The record keeper's possum-daemon plucked the file out, passing it to them with a warning to handle it carefully. Saguru promised he would and brought it to a table so he could spread the documents inside out. The daemon left while they read.

"Touichi Kuroba, married to Chikage Furuhato eighteen years ago. Children: Kaito Kuroba?" Saguru read out, surprised. "Born one year after their marriage."

Kenda paced back and forth along the table. "If we assume Kuroba the elder is dead, the only people with the means, talent, and motive to impersonate him are those who are firstly, magicians, and secondly, related to him somehow. This includes friends, family, and colleagues."

"Touichi Kuroba had many admirers," Saguru continued in his daemon's vein of thought. "He also had many friends. However, recent videos of 1412's thefts would indicate that he is native Japanese - or can impersonate one very well. How many of his Japanese associates are practising magicians?"

"Perhaps three who are currently alive," Kenda answered in turn. She sketched out names in the air with her talons. "Other than professionals, we can't forget his assistant. And his son."

Saguru stared at her in surprise. "His son?" he repeated. Then his expression went thoughtful. "True."

She nodded and fussed at the feathers of one wing. "We should investigate their alibis for the heists, all five of them."

"Agreed." Saguru replaced the records neatly and carefully and thanked the staff for their assistance on their way out. He didn't yet have a motive for Kaitou 1412's thefts. That was a question he would pose to the thief when he met them.

It took several more days to confirm but Touichi Kuroba's three associates all turned out to have unshakeable alibis for at least one if not more of the heists. A tired but pleased Saguru crossed off their names on their short suspect list. Before they could visit Touichi's assistant however, the local news erupted into a frenzy over Kaitou 1412's latest heist notice.

Adam's Smile: a work by Picasso, due to be displayed as part of an exhibition on the artist. It had an estimated worth of four hundred million yen and was going to be installed as a display tomorrow, on the 23rd of February.

The 23rd was also the day before Saguru was supposed to begin school at Ekoda High, the preparation for which he had been juggling alongside phone calls to confirm alibis and old-fashioned legwork. It took only .5 of a second for him to make the decision to dedicate the coming twenty four hours to the thief. Saguru doubted that he would struggle in class anyway. He could catch up on any reading after the heist.

For once, Saguru didn't need to ask his father for permission to join the task force. When Hakuba Sr returned home from work, he informed Saguru that he had already made a provision for his attendance.

The next day proceeded thusly: at 5pm, Saguru and Kenda paid a visit to the museum to supervise the unloading of the painting and familiarise themselves with the building's layout. At 6pm, they returned home for a few hours for dinner and then were driven back to the museum by their father, arriving at 9.30pm. 10pm was when the thief claimed he would swoop in and take the famous painting, so Saguru and Kenda were alert for suspicious activity preceding that time. Kaitou 1412 had never once been tardy after all.

The weather forecast tonight was for approximately ten centimetres of snowfall and winds approaching 60km/h - near gale force. Police cars lined the forecourt, a thin layer of snow already accumulating on roofs and bonnets, while officers shivered in the shelter of the museum building. Saguru felt a twinge of sympathy for them. The wind chill alone would make the already cold weather cut deep into the skin. Not even Kenda, with her feathers, was enjoying the weather.

Saguru turned his collar up, glad that his Ulster coat had a thick inner lining, while Kenda hunched up and gripped his shoulder tightly to avoid being ripped away by the wind. Shoving his hands deep into his pockets, he stepped inside the premises while his father hung back to make small chat with the unfortunates posted outside.

Scores of suspicious looks met him in the interior. That was good; the men were alert. He flashed a pass at them to show that he was allowed to be here then followed the echoes of bellowed instructions through the museum's quiet halls. The voice led them to the main exhibition room. His eyes flicked around and took mental notes of the room's layout, the number of officers assembled, their daemons.

The room comprised of a wide, tiled floor. A second storey viewing balcony circled around most of the gallery space, accessible by one set of stairs. Points of entry-exit: three wide passages, upstairs windows. Hazards: chandelier, number of men, simple rope barrier in front of painting.

The loud voice from before interrupted his analysis.

"All right! Remember: Kid will be here at 10pm!" barked the man Saguru presumed was the lead inspector on the Kaitou 1412 task force. "Let's all synchronise our watches now. Let's see - the time is currently--"

"9:51:16.05pm on February the twenty-third, year 20XX," Saguru recited, having pulled out his pocket watch at the mention of the time. He snapped the lid shut and tucked the timepiece away, looking up into the surprised faces of the inspector and his men. He returned the stares with a proud smile. "My watch loses only .001 of a second each year. You may rely on me as a reference."

"Who are _you_?" the man asked rudely. "This isn't any place for children. Go home - shoo!"

Footsteps from behind. His father grasped the shoulder not occupied by Kenda. "Now, now, Nakamori," Hakuba Sr laughed, "this is my son, Saguru. He says he wants to meet Kid but I'm afraid all that media attention has gone to his head a bit."

Saguru's mouth twitched, turning down at the corner. The media attention had hardly 'gone to his head'. It was more attention than his parents had ever given him, for all that the journalists were sometimes a nuisance.

"--so would you mind showing him what a real investigation is like?" his father asked, hands clapped before him as he cheerfully begged his subordinate. Nakamoro saluted, chest puffed out.

"Leave it to me, sir!"

Hakuba Sr left the museum shortly afterwards, reassured by Nakamori's preparations. The inspector looped an arm around Saguru's shoulders once the superintendent general was gone and gestured widely to the gallery.

"If there's anything you want to ask, ask away!" Nakamori declared.

Saguru sighed. Young he might be but a novice he was not. Kenda didn't even bother to feign courtesy. Her imperious stare appeared to confuse the other man's daemon. "Very well," Saguru began tersely. "Tell me, is Kid male or female?"

Though a simple question, it seemed to catch Inspector Nakamori by surprise. "M... Male? I think."

"What about his age?" Saguru continued, leaning in. "His height? His weight? Favourite scent? Hairstyle? _What about his birthdate and blood type?_ "

"I-- I don't know," stuttered the inspector. Saguru voiced a sound of derision.

"Excuse me," he said, and spun on his heel. A bit of cold weather was needed to douse Saguru's growing temper.

The snow had by now blanketed the entire forecourt. Saguru's next sigh coalesced in the chilly air, followed closely by Kenda's disgruntled mutters.

"I wonder if your father would be so flippant if he saw you work," his daemon groused.

"If this 1412 is as hard to catch as his predecessor, maybe he will have the chance to." Saguru scanned the white lumps, noting the one car which was free of snow. Its engine must be on. He was about to head back inside when his partner's sharp eyes spotted something half-buried in the snow.

"Saguru!" She leapt off his shoulder and flapped unsteadily to the object. He took it from her talons when she brought it over.

"A police ID," he noted, flipping it open for the name inside. "Hideki Sakamoto?"

Kenda had already flown off, flapping hard against the wind to reach the car devoid of snow. Saguru hurried after her and offered his arm before her scrabbling claws could leave rents in the car's paint. "There's a male officer bound and gagged in the back seat. The thief is already here!"

Saguru checked his watch. Three minutes and forty-two seconds left. Looking around, he caught sight of the tether to an advertising balloon on the roof that had not been present when he had arrived with his father earlier. He smirked as he slipped the watch back into his pocket.

"I see." What a simple getaway method. It had been left in plain sight as well, albeit behind the police car. The frozen officers on watch outside would not have been paying strict attention to their surroundings.

Time to cut short Kaitou 1412's little magic show.

A Swiss Army pocket-knife was all he needed to cut away the balloon. The gale quickly swallowed it and thrashed it in the air as Saguru hurried inside. Kenda took wing once they were out of the wind. If the thief was going to use the balloon to escape, he must have prepared a means to reach the roof. Kenda was already headed that way, having come to the same conclusion.

Fifty seconds. Nakamori was yelling at an officer to get back into position. Saguru only caught a glimpse of their back and a flick of their daemon's furred tail as he dashed upstairs to the second floor windows. Peering through each one eventually yielded him a taut climbing rope, disappearing up into the snow-tossed night. His knife made short work of it. He had just enough time to make sure there were no other ropes when hissing smoke billowed from the rope cordon posts in front of the painting on the floor below.

" _It's gone!_ " Nakamori bellowed moments later once the smoke had cleared. Saguru hurried down and beheld the vanished painting with his own eyes. A message had been left scrawled in the blank frame. "Outside! After him!" Nakamori shouted, sprinting for the museum entrance with a stampede of policemen and daemons at his heels before the young detective could say a word.

The gallery emptied in three seconds, leaving Saguru and Kenda alone.

... Almost alone.

"Go ahead and take your time while I take Adam's Smile," snickered the one officer who had remained behind, getting to his feet after being 'overcome' by the earlier smoke. Saguru crouched quickly, hiding himself behind the staircase banister as he watched the officer - no, Kaitou 1412 - talk to himself as he peeled away the message from the real painting. Kenda looked ready to fly over and accost the thief straightaway but stayed put at Saguru's indication.

The detective waited until the thief's back was turned before he rose and made his silent way over.

"Is this painting really worth four hundred million yen though?" the thief asked himself, removing staples from the canvas. "Art's really strange." Another snicker. "Never thought it'd be this easy--"

"People panic when something disappears quickly so they always forget it's not possible," Saguru interrupted. He was amused to see the thief startle. To their credit, they remained composed enough not to turn around and show him their face.

"A basic trick." It was not at all what he had expected given the phantom thief's reputation. Perhaps their more flashy manoeuvres were reserved for the public. "You're one minute and 13.02 seconds late, Kid," he added.

Kaitou 1412 rolled up the painting and carefully got to their feet. They were slightly shorter than Saguru at their full height. "What can I say?" the thief replied. "The train was late due to the snow." A burst of smoke followed. A few seconds later they were perched on the upstairs banister, now in costume. They laughed at him. "Hah! But you're also late, detec-- argh!"

The thief flinched back at the brown and tan missile which streaked at their face. They overbalanced and fell over but Kenda did not let up in her attack. She dive-bombed 1412 repeatedly, just shy of actually raking the thief's face with her talons. Horrified, Saguru hurried up the stairs and whistled sharply to call his daemon off. She landed on the stone rail, wings aggressively held apart from her body. Saguru glared at her but she ignored him.

"I apologise," he said, hastening towards the thief. "That was uncalled for. I--" It was his turn to be interrupted: by a streak of brown-grey fur. Saguru heard the growl before he saw the daemon, and he felt the impact of the marble floor on his back before feeling sharp claws digging into his coat and warm breath on his cheek. Dazed, he stared into the snarling fangs of a wolf while the thief took their chance to flip upright. A daemon directly attacking another's human was virtually unheard of, just like how a human touching another person's daemon was social taboo. Saguru couldn't move without committing an act of gross misconduct.

"Boy!" they said sharply (that's what Saguru thought it sounded like). One hand tugged the brim of their top hat low over the eyes. "Let's go!"

Saguru's gaze flickered. Before the thief's daemon could respond, Kenda shrieked and flew at the wolf. She drove the daemon off him so he could sit up, but between her dive bombs and the wolf's snapping leaps it did not look like either of the two humans could pull them apart without touching the other's.

The teenage detective glanced beyond the tussle. He saw one glinting eye watching him from the shadows beneath the top hat's brim. Was the thief angry at him? Saguru had interrupted the great thief's escape. Outside, the police were expending energy on a wasted pursuit but they would have to return to the crime scene eventually. If Saguru could keep Kid and his daemon occupied-- hell, if he could just hit the fire alarm and bring Nakamori back immediately...

Kaitou 1412 sniggered.

Saguru's skin crawled. "Does something about this amuse you?" he asked.

"Oh," the thief remarked, tapping a finger to their chin, "I was just thinking you're nothing like how the papers describe you."

This close, Saguru could not help but analyse the thief's other physical aspects. They sounded young despite the lowered baritone (the startled cry earlier had gone into a higher register that Saguru was inclined to believe was the thief's normal voice), and were indisputably male (that suit was definitely tailored; if they were a woman with a bound chest, Saguru would eat his deerstalker). From the acrobatics just now and before, they must have unusual agility and flexibility and thus probably excelled in physical activities.

It was not definitive but it was a start.

"But as I was saying, detective," 1412 - no, Kid - continued, breaking Saguru out of his analysis, "you are a tad late."

Something pinged against the marble floor and thick smoke billowed outwards at an alarming rate. Saguru hurried to cover his mouth and nose in case it was the sleeping gas Kid had been favouring recently.

There was a frustrated screech. "Kenda!" he yelled, venturing into the dark clouds. It was not sleeping gas. It was no more irritating than fire smoke and far less dangerous to inhale, as he realised after one sniff. Still, better safe than sorry.

His daemon shrieked again, from further away. Saguru jogged blindly, following the sound. Hearing pounding footsteps behind him, he turned and spotted Inspector Nakamori. The man was alone.

"Hakuba! I saw the smoke from the windows-- where is that bastard?" the man demanded.

"Don't, know," Saguru coughed. He pointed ahead. "I think - _cough_ \- he went that way."

"I'll get you, Kid!" Nakamori went haring off.

It took a few seconds for Saguru to realise his oversight.

"Shit! Wait, stop!" He used the rail as a guide and followed it out of the smoke screen, coughing all the while. "No daemon..."

In the end, the thief escaped with Adam's Smile. He found Kenda unconscious in the corridor leading to one of the galleries with a faint woodsy aroma in the air. Nakamori (the real Nakamori) and his men did return after seeing the smoke leaking outside and immediately took the young pair aside for medical care. Once Kenda came around, their statements were taken, one final health check, and then some three hours after the whole ordeal began they were allowed to leave. Saguru battled self-disgust and fatigue the entire train ride home.

"So, did you meet him?" Hakuba Sr asked after Saguru collapsed in one of the armchairs in the sitting room. The sitting room doubled as a reading room and thus held his father's entire collection of fiction and non-fiction works in dark shelves ringed about the room. Japanese mostly; some were in English.

"Yes." He pinched the bridge of his nose. His mouth twisted. "He was-- not what I expected."

"Ah, didn't get him then? Don't worry," his father said heartily, heaving himself out of his armchair. He squeezed his son's shoulder on the way past. "We'll catch him eventually. Oh, and I managed to arrange for you to transfer into class 2-B at Ekoda High as you asked." His father winked. "I was beginning to wonder about your sense of humour," he chortled.

It took a moment for Saguru to catch on. "Thank you, father," was his tired reply. As his father headed upstairs, Saguru sighed and slid down into his seat. He hadn't even noticed the pun in the class' name. '2-B or not 2-B'.

Kenda yawned head drooping on to her breast. "I'll get his damn dog next time," she muttered, still annoyed Kid had gassed her.

"Next time," he agreed, eyes slowly sliding shut. But first, tomorrow, they would meet the last suspect on their list of potential Kaitou Kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daemons mentioned:  
> Saguru Hakuba - Eurasian sparrowhawk, 'Kenda' (colloquially known as 'Watson')  
> Jennifer Miller - Ladybug, 'Gestalt'  
> Hamish Fielding - Dog (Collie), 'Joan'  
> Baaya - Dog (Basset hound), 'Charles'  
> Superintendent General Hakuba - Irish Wolfhound, 'Tadashi' 理士
> 
> (For those curious about the [Ulster coat](http://www.gentlemansgazette.com/ulster/) \- it is what Sherlock Holmes is described as wearing in Doyle's original work. It used to be clothing worn on a day-to-day basis and can come with or without a cape. The link leads to a page which describes the defining features of an Ulster.
> 
> The Inverness cape on the other hand - easily confused with the Ulster's cape form - was regarded more as formal wear for Holmes' time period. Nowadays, the Inverness is a wet-weather garment worn primarily by pipers and drummers in Scotland, although it is still worn as formal wear by members of certain professions.)


	4. A Series of Trifling Observations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles." -- Sherlock Holmes, _The Boscombe Valley Mystery_

_Mental note: do not fall asleep in the armchair_ , Saguru told himself as he stood in the classroom of 2-B at Ekoda High, towering well over his new homeroom teacher. Though there was a crick in his neck and his shoulder muscles ached something fierce, he held himself straight-backed and composed as she announced his transfer to the class. When she glanced at him, Saguru took the cue and introduced himself.

"9:00:32.41am on February the twenty-fourth, year 20XX - I transferred from London Bridge High School. My name is Hakuba Saguru and this is Watson." The teenage detective bowed slightly, Kenda echoing the move by ducking her head. "A pleasure to meet you all."

While class 2-B erupted into excited whispers and giggling sighs, Saguru sought out the reason for his transfer into this specific class: a teenage boy with unruly hair and equally unruly dress style (that unfastened top button offended Saguru's neat aesthetic). They had a daemon laid out at their feet that looked like some sort of hybrid fox. The boy was the only one not excited, curious, or even remotely happy to see him. If anything, his shocked expression spoke far louder than a verbal confession.

Maintaining a congenial smile, Saguru allowed his eyes to linger - garnering a narrow look from the object of his gaze - before he swept them over the rest of the class. With only two suspects left on his list, the unusual reaction was a point towards validating Saguru's suspicions.

Kaito Kuroba recognised him. Although Saguru knew his image had been on the front page of the local news in recent days, the recognition was not comparable to that which the class was displaying. It was a look that said, 'I know you' and 'what are you doing here'. He needed more solid evidence than a hunch, however, before he could level a direct accusation.

He took his assigned seat at the back row and brought out a blank notebook. The class settled in due course and the first lesson began. As Saguru had thought, none of the subjects were overly difficult. Despite Japanese being his second language - and rarely used - he managed to keep abreast with the other students and made neat notes of everything he had to catch up on afterwards. When he could spare a moment, he kept one eye on Kuroba and observed the teen's mannerisms.

Kuroba seemed bored with many of the lessons. He did the work, but he was always the first to complete it and took to scribbling or staring out the window while he waited for everyone else to finish. Interestingly, while Kuroba displayed periodic restlessness throughout the day, his daemon remained rested, alert, and more than once flicked a gaze Saguru's way when she thought the detective wasn't paying attention.

The independent partnership the pair seemed to have intrigued him. It was not unlike himself and Kenda.

"Stop it!" the girl to Kuroba's right hissed, snatching her mechanical pencil away from him. She was a plain girl, with long, dark brown hair, sharp eyes and an equally sharp tongue. Watching her bicker, he had the distinct feeling he had met someone with a similar attitude recently.

His expression slipped into an absent frown while he watched the pair fight over the pencil. Or say rather, watched Kuroba perform incredibly seamless sleights of hand to keep the pencil out of his classmate's grasp. Saguru startled when the girl suddenly leapt out of her seat at Kuroba. He expected the pair to end up in a tangle on the ground, but the magician defied his expectations by backflipping - _backflipping!_ \- out of his seat and on to the desk of the student behind his. Rubbers, pens, and all manner of stationery became impromptu missiles in the girl's hands. Saguru ducked as Kuroba executed a neat twist in mid-air over him and landed on his feet with a cat's grace. The girl and her bear-daemon tore past a shocked Saguru to get at Kuroba.

A look to the front of the classroom told the blonde that this was a regular occurrence. Their teacher's shoulders bore a resigned slump. She wasn't even trying to stop the pair's antics or scold them for their disruptive behaviour. The students closer to the rear of the classroom were even openly watching the proceedings.

Saguru decided that, given how easy the current subject was, he could spare some time to observe Touichi's son in action.

From out of the cleaning closet in the corner of the room the girl got her hands on a mop. She wielded it like a martial arts expert, yet Kuroba avoided her stabs, swipes, and sweeps with just as much ease. Kuroba's daemon was playing hard-to-get as well, weaving amongst the desk and chair legs with frightening fluidity. Saguru jumped to feel her brush by his legs at one point, and he could have sworn that the daemon smirked at him as she went past. The bear-daemon chasing her had no such grace: Saguru had to quickly raise his feet and hold his desk down as the daemon barrelled by.

London Bridge High had never been this chaotic, not even during lunch breaks. Saguru wondered if this was how classes in Ekoda High 2-B would be every day from now on.

Kuroba and the mop-wielding girl fought until the end-of-period bell. By then, Saguru was 90% sure Kuroba had both the intelligence and physical capability to wear the mantle of Kaitou Kid.

At lunch Saguru was beset by his curious classmates, all wanting to hear stories about his life overseas and, of course, the criminal cases that he had helped Scotland Yard solve.

"Hey, did you really catch that guy by working out the time of day from the clock shadow?" one girl asked, wide-eyed ( _light brown hair, pigtails, round square glasses, colt; somewhat naive, either born with bad eyesight or studies frequently in bad light_ ).

"I did," Saguru confirmed. "By visiting the location and taking a measurement of the clock in question, I was able to obtain a ratio and find the length of its shadow. From there, it was simply a matter of working out the angle of the sun and calculating the time of day. It's elementary trigonometry."

A chorus of impressed 'wow's rang through his listeners. Saguru found his lips crooking up into a tiny smile.

"How did you find the serial killer who killed all those women?" a boy asked ( _short, brown hair, nervous disposition, rabbit; probably suffers from anxiety_ ).

"Ah. Now that--" Saguru began to say.

 _Slam!_ "Aoko's just trying to cheer you up, Bakaito!"

Everyone around him winced. Saguru peered beyond the crowd surrounding his desk and saw Kuroba and the girl from earlier attempting to stare each other down. She had her palms on his desk and was leaning over him, eyes wet and furious.

"What's wrong with you?" she demanded. "You weren't this mean before Ko changed! What on earth happened to the two of you? Why won't you either of you tell me?!" She dashed the back of her hand against her eyes. Saguru caught the glimmering streaks left behind. "If it's something Aoko can help with, Aoko wants to know!"

Kuroba's expression did not change, yet Saguru saw the minute shift in posture and the tense change to the teenager's hands. There was a story behind this argument. The detective part of him wanted to ferret out all the details while the proper, polite side of him reigned in that impulse firmly. It was none of Saguru's business what quarrels Kaito Kuroba had with his friend.

Movement up near the ceiling caught his notice. Since everyone else's attention was pointedly _not_ on the arguing pair (one exception: a black-haired beauty holding court in the centre of the classroom, glaring daggers at Kuroba for some reason), Saguru's glance at the classroom rafter went unnoticed. He saw Kenda shuffling closer to the quarrelling pair. Saguru frowned at his daemon, hoping to catch her attention and warn her away from displaying such blatant interest in a private argument. She ignored him and focused her yellow eyes on the two.

"I told you before: nothing happened!" Kuroba bit back. His fox-daemon threw a glance at Saguru. Saguru quickly averted his eyes, but when he chanced another look he met Kuroba's wary gaze instead.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Kuroba told his friend abruptly, chair scraping against the floor as he stood. Kuroba stomped out of the room, hands fisted deep into his pockets and daemon trotting stiffly after him. A tense silence settled over everyone following his departure.

Saguru watched Aoko try and fail to hide the tears she was wiping away. Her bear-daemon nosed her ankle and she sank down into a crouch to wrap him in her arms. The boys and girls gathered around Saguru slowly dispersed, all excitement drained from the room.

As the classroom chatter hit a low murmur, the detective felt a tug on his heart. Since no-one was paying him attention now, he rose to his feet and followed the tugs down the corridor and up a set of stairs. He saw Kenda waiting for him at the top beside the doorway to the roof. The door was ajar and allowed a steady stream of cold air into the stairwell.

"Kenda," he sighed, holding out his arm as he approached her. She flapped hard and landed there. "I know you're curious, but you can't--"

"Shh!" She jabbed her beak towards the door, voice hushed. "He'll hear you."

Saguru's expression let her know that he could not have cared less if he was heard. Eavesdropping was the height of rudeness. Nevertheless, he heaved a noiseless sigh and pressed himself to the wall beside the crack in the doorway.

_"I can't tell her, girl, I can't."_

The teenage detective twitched in alarm. But then his mind re-interpreted the words and he realised that he'd mistaken an affectation for a name: 'Ko' was the name of Kuroba's daemon from what he had heard before. A flash of satisfaction was all he got to feel before the conversation recaptured his attention.

 _"I don't want to keep lying to her, but she'll hate me if I tell her the truth."_ There was a choked-off sob. _"I can't keep doing this, Ko."_

Saguru closed his eyes; Kenda shifted guiltily on his shoulder. He pushed away from the wall and walked back down the stairs to their classroom. Upon his return, he found that Aoko had dried her tears and was staring at her textbook determinedly.

Kuroba returned just before the signal for fifth period and behaved for the remainder of the day.

 

_I still know nothing of his motivations._

Saguru found himself distracted by this conundrum all of the following morning, pen tracing idle whorls in the air as he turned the puzzle of Kaitou Kid over and over in his mind. The phantom thief did not steal out of greed; his targets were always returned before his next job. That they stole for the challenge of it could not yet be ruled out, however-- Saguru hastily made a note in the margin of his textbook before the teacher erased the blackboard - if he was right and Kuroba _was_ Kid, then Kuroba found little joy in his night job.

Even if Saguru was completely wrong, if it really was for the challenge, Kid was too careful and too thorough in his preparations to be doing this for fun. Such criminals, once emboldened, inevitably grew over-confident and careless. Saguru could not believe the Metropolitan Police were so incompetent as to miss DNA evidence when it was left behind.

... Perhaps he should begin conducting his own searches just in case.

That evening the detective paid a visit to the Blue Parrot: a billiards parlour which Touichi Kuroba's assistant ran. It was a small establishment, but lively. Brightly lit yet warm and cosy, each table ringed by smiling, relaxed players. Triumphant whoops made their home amongst disappointed groans and the sharp clack of cue balls colliding.

Mounted on the wall above rows of drinks was a jewel-embedded cue. Saguru's first instinct was to describe it as gaudy, more for decoration than function. Unless he was mistaken, that cue was the famous Legendary Cue which Kid had attempted to steal in January - indeed, a closer look at the plaque beneath it confirmed his guess.

The old, balding man serving refreshments at the bar appeared to be the owner he was looking for. The blonde approached him, skirting players' elbows and daemons.

"Jii Kounosuke?" Saguru enquired. It had not been easy to dredge up that name. Touichi Kuroba had never publicly operated with an assistant during his stage shows.

"Yes?" The old man looked up from a coffee he was brewing, puzzled. His eyes lingered briefly on Kenda then flicked to her human.

"My name is Hakuba Saguru. I'm a detective. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time." He smiled faintly. "It's about your former master."

Unlike Kuroba, Jii was less adept at hiding subtle changes to facial expression. A flash of panic passed over him. He quickly recovered and inclined his head slightly.

"If you would not mind waiting until after hours...?" Jii proposed. Saguru nodded; he looked relieved. "Please feel free to play a game while you wait," Jii continued, adding: "Tea is on the house for you, sir."

"Thank you," Saguru said, quietly amused. He drifted away to watch the other players. On his shoulder Kenda twisted her head this way and that, hunkering down like she wanted to launch off his shoulder and pounce on some hapless prey.

"Looks normal enough," she muttered. Saguru chuckled.

"Perhaps because it is exactly what it looks like?" he suggested in a murmur, taking a seat in the corner. "If he is helping the current Kaitou Kid, they must have a legitimate front. Their funds must originate from somewhere, and they are certainly not using the profits from their stolen artefacts."

The corner gave Saguru the perfect vantage from which to observe the entire premises without looking suspicious. He saw Jii serve a patron their coffee then turn away and pull out a mobile phone. Whoever it was, the old man had them on speed-dial. He spoke a few words, nodded, then hung up.

Curious. Making a call during business hours? Could be innocent, could be significant. To pass the time, Saguru accepted a challenge to play a game of 9-ball and won easily. Kenda kept watch from the corner all night, yellow eyes tracking every movement.

The Blue Parrot shut its doors and emptied of its patrons just past 11pm. Saguru had already called Baaya to let her know he would be home late. Since he would be lingering after hours, he insisted on helping Jii tidy the premises.

"How long had you known Kuroba Touichi?" he asked as he collected cups and glasses.

"Oh dear, that was very long ago." The elderly man frowned as he wiped down the counter. "Let me see - I met him when he was a young, unknown magician. He was still in high school I believe, but he already had a regular show at the bar that I worked at. He lived and breathed magic, Master Touichi did." Saguru did not have to look to see the man's sad expression. The mournful tone was enough. "I still cannot believe he has passed on."

"What made you decide to become his assistant?" he prompted, after a delicate pause.

"Ah. He and I would talk every night, after his performances. I confessed to trying to learn simple card tricks after watching him and he offered to teach me. From there, it was almost a natural progression from student to assistant. I quit my position at the bar after two years and followed him to the FISM championships." Jii's smile bespoke fond remembrance. "I was his assistant until the day he died."

Adoration for an idol. That alone might be enough to push someone into putting on the costume of a dead thief and continuing their legacy. Saguru carefully disposed of the trash he had collected and lined glasses on the counter for Jii to wash. "I am sorry to touch upon such a sensitive matter again, however I must know: Kuroba Touichi's death eight years ago..."

The old man heaved a sigh. "He is well and truly gone," he told Saguru. "I identified the body myself. His wife did as well. He died in an explosion during a public performance."

"I see." That ruled out the theory of a dead man donning his old costume, he thought, pleased. "And his son, Kuroba Kaito?"

Jii turned solemn. "Young Master Kaito loved his father. Sometimes I worry that he tries too hard to become like him."

'Become like him' - in more ways than one? Saguru nodded and fell silent. His estimation of Jii's height and body shape made it feasible for him to have played the part of Kaitou Kid during the thief's initial resurrection, just like how Kuroba fit the physical profile he had compiled for the Kid from the second heist onwards. While their motives remained murky, Saguru felt himself closing in on the true identity ( _identities_ ) of the white-clad thief.

Between himself and Jii, they soon had the parlour spotless. Saguru thanked the man for his time. As he and Kenda were about to leave, Jii called to him.

"If I might ask a favour of you, Hakuba-kun?"

Saguru paused with his hand on the door handle. "Yes?"

The old man bowed deeply. "Please, watch over the young master for me. I have a feeling he'll do something reckless one day and endanger his life." His aging German Shepherd whined agreement from the floor by his feet. Jii continued forlornly, "He resembles his father more than he realises."

Saguru hesitated, taken aback by the words. His mind fell upon them, picking at possible subtexts and interpretations before a sharp peck from Kenda brought him around to their basic meaning:

'Keep him safe.'

He nodded. The gazes of both human and daemon were firm with resolution. "We will," Saguru promised.

 

"Did you hear? Kid's next heist is going to be filmed live!" "Really?" "Wow!" "I'm gonna record it when I get home!"

Five days since Saguru's transfer in and Kid had already sent in a notice for his next heist. It was a deviation from the thief's usual pattern, announcing his theft less than a week following the previous. Adam's Smile had been returned yesterday evening together with Kid's notice.

Given the public nature of the heist, various 'experts' appeared on panel shows to weigh in. Kid was escalating, they said. Following the basic pattern of serial offenders, wouldn't be long before he was caught, etcetera, etcetera.

Saguru, pretending to be engrossed in a novel, snuck a look beneath his fringe at his primary suspect. Kuroba was reading a newspaper at his desk, open at the spread detailing the news of the Kid heist. He and Nakamori's daughter still had not reconciled with one another. While that meant peaceful and generally productive lessons, Saguru could read the frigid atmosphere between the two and found it more uncomfortable than watching them let loose with acrobatics and cleaning props.

During the break between second and third period, Saguru overheard a conversation between Aoko Nakamori and the light brown-haired girl with glasses ( _Keiko Momoi, wasn't it?_ ).

"Hey, Aoko, you said you won tickets to the Prince Prince concert, right? Decided who you're going to take?" Keiko asked.

"I don't know," she responded glumly, shooting a not-very-subtle look Kuroba's way. "Did you want to come, Keiko?"

"I've got club activities," Keiko said regretfully, "and a lot of revision to do."

Aoko sighed. Kuroba was concentrating very hard on his newspaper. "I guess I'll have to take dad if he's not too tired from chasing Kid..."

Saguru cleared his throat. Aoko and Keiko turned to him in surprise. "If it is all right with you, Miss Aoko, please allow me to accompany you to this concert."

"But..." Aoko bit her lip and threw another look at Kuroba. Saguru did not need to be a detective to read her thoughts.

Placing his book down, he went over to her desk. "It would be irresponsible of me, as a gentleman, to allow you to go alone." He took and kissed the back of her hand. With his eyes on Aoko he couldn't see Kuroba's reaction to the gesture. Aoko herself was blushing: a light dusting of pink across the cheeks as Saguru straightened. Given the way Kid's daemon had attacked him a few days ago...

He heard Kuroba snort.

"A useless detective and the daughter of a useless inspector - you two are a match!" the magician snickered.

Aoko instantly flared up. Saguru heard a growl from under her desk. "What's that supposed to mean?" she exclaimed.

Bingo. Saguru chuckled, turning slightly to flash a smirk at Kuroba. "It seems he's a big fan of Kid." The smirk widened ever so slightly at the other boy's scowl before he turned back to Aoko. "How about this? If I can apprehend Kid tonight, will you allow me to accompany you?"

She glanced between the two of them, hesitant. Saguru maintained a polite smile, ignoring the combined glares of Kuroba and his fox-daemon.

"All right. If you can catch Kid we'll go to the concert together!" Aoko agreed, a tiny smile breaking out on her face for the first time in days.

Kuroba made a derisive sound. "Yeah, like Kaitou Kid's ever gonna let himself be caught," he scoffed.

"Well," Saguru said, raising an eyebrow at him, "Kid is different from you in that he is a genius. He won't be caught using ordinary methods." It was meant to be a goad and it worked. Kuroba hid it well but the detective was watching the magician's daemon out of the corner of his eye: she bristled, lips drawing back from her teeth. One point to the detective.

"And if," Saguru continued, "by some chance I fail to capture Kid, I shall leave you to be Aoko's escort."

"Interesting. I don't really want to go, but I'll take that bet!" Kuroba declared.

 _Hook, line, and sinker_ , Saguru thought. The blonde's quiet laugh was mostly smothered by the bell for third period. Whether or not he caught Kid tonight, Saguru was determined that Inspector Nakamori's daughter would have someone familiar by her side.

 

"Why are you calling me, Miss Miller?" Saguru asked with a long-suffering air. He was supervising the implementation of a safeguard in preparation for tonight's heist. The target was a bronze statue about three-and-a-half metres tall. "I am occupied with a case at the moment."

"I _know_! That's why I'm calling," she gushed. "You're chasing Phantom Thief 1412, aren't you? I wish I was there!"

Saguru exhaled. Loudly.

"Hey! No need for that! It's almost time for him to appear, right? I wanted to wish you luck. I just know you'll be the one to catch him. You haven't failed yet!"

"I appreciate your confidence in me," Saguru told her as he approved the officers' work with a nod. "Excuse me. I must attend to the final checks. It was a pleasure speaking with you."

He terminated the call and made a face at his phone's screen. How had she found out where he was and what he was doing so quickly? Scratch that, how had she unearthed his new number? He knew he had been news in Japan days before his debut appearance at the museum a few days ago, but Japanese local news rarely caught overseas attention. The resourcefulness of journalists was truly frightening.

"We are here live at the Ekoda Museum where final preparations are being made for Kid's appearance," began a nearby reporter - the only reporter, thank goodness. Although it was nothing like the crowd that would have gathered for him in England, the teenage detective had still donned his Holmes outfit with the expectation of appearing on camera.

Saguru ignored the television crew for now and checked the base of the statue for the chain he had asked to have affixed to it. Inspector Nakamori's men made a stern perimeter around the circular hall - far more than he would have liked to have present considering Kid's skill with disguise and crowd reliance.

Speaking of Inspector Nakamori, the man was currently shouting something about rats and ordering men to hunt them down. Saguru saw officers nearby sharing a wry smile: 'typical Nakamori, right?' the smiles said. Their humour turned to horror when Kenda screeched and pounced on the rats, delivering the stricken rodents to several heads.

While Saguru was crouched by the statue, he sensed the reporter approaching him.

"Hakuba-kun, what are you doing?" she asked him curiously. He turned and his eyes flicked over her and the reporter, cataloguing features and minute observations out of habit.

 _Petite build, small hands, bee-daemon on her lapel. Not Kid._ Saguru did the same analysis of the cameraman. "One can never be too careful," he told her. It struck him that the phantom thief might be listening in and he smirked. "I have a particular reason for wanting to win this battle."

"I see!" the woman exclaimed. Her eyes glittered with sharp interest. "Could you tell us what that reason is?"

Saguru shook his head as he rose to his feet, hands slipping into the pockets of his coat. Kenda winged over to him and landed heavily on his shoulder. "I'm afraid not. Suffice to say, Watson and I intend to arrest Kaitou Kid tonight."

The reporter whipped around and chattered excitedly into the camera. Saguru took the opportunity to peel away from the pair and approach Inspector Nakamori.

"Nothing unusual in the sky; nothing unusual on the roof; and nothing unusual in the basement either!" an officer was reporting to Nakamori.

"Hah! Kid's probably too afraid to come!" the inspector gloated while his badger-daemon joined the officer's in peering intently at the CCTV screens.

Saguru checked with the man: "How many men do you have guarding the basement, Inspector?"

"None!" Nakamori proclaimed - with probably more pride than was warranted. "Kid shouldn't be stupid enough to try and sneak through the laser sensors!"

Then that was exactly what Kid would try. He had a penchant for simple but ridiculous schemes. "There wouldn't happen to be extra prevention measures downstairs as well, would there?" Saguru asked.

Nakamori was smug. "Anyone who trips the lasers down there will set off the alarm and also fill the room with sleeping gas. There's no way that bastard will risk it after the last time I nearly put him to sleep!"

Saguru huffed a laugh and silently moved away. Few paid him much mind as he borrowed a gas mask and went looking for the stairs down to the basement. There was too much focus on securing the bronze statue's immediate vicinity.

The stairs were unlit. Apparently the police were confident that their invisible laser net would be sufficient to catch the magician-thief. Saguru didn't doubt they had tried to be thorough, however analysis of past heists had helped the teenage detective narrow the thief's approach to one of two.

"Approach number one, Kid sneaks through security disguised as someone those around him do not expect," Saguru breathed as he placed his feet cautiously on the dark steps. "And approach number two--"

"The direct approach," Kenda hissed, streaking into the darkness. There was a yowl, a triumphant shriek, and the sound of two animals tumbling down the stairs.

Saguru bit back an oath and forsook stealth. He took the stairs two, three at a time and almost tripped over the scuffling daemons near the bottom. The basement looked deserted at first glance; a line of pipes and ventilation cluttered the walls, but movement drew the detective's eyes upwards. There - the white cape and top hat of the Kaitou Kid. He could make out gloves gripping whatever wire or rope the thief was using to sneak through the laser net.

"That's as far as you come, Kaitou Kid!" Saguru moved away from their daemons, closer to the other end of the tightwire Kid was on. The vent which the thief must have crawled through to get here was a black square against a marginally lighter backdrop.

"You again," Kid said. He didn't sound surprised.

Was it Kuroba? Was it not? Their first meeting had been chaotic and Saguru could not clearly remember whether the daemon he had seen had been more fox or wolf.

As much as he wanted to ask his questions now, it was better that he apprehended them first and waited until they were securely in police custody. "Let's lower the curtain on this circus, shall we?" he asked. He hit the manual gas release button to his left. Gas began to seep into the room in billowing clouds.

"Circus?" the thief murmured. "Ah, I see. There must be smoke before a circus ends, right?"

Kenda gave two shrieking calls from the vicinity of the stairs. She had flown above the gas and was safe. A quieter whine followed: the other daemon.

"Go! I can deal with this," Kid ordered it as Saguru brought out his gas mask, eyebrows raised.

"Once the gas fills the room, you'll be at the police's mercy. You might as well surrender now," Saguru pointed out.

Kid chuckled darkly. Saguru glimpsed something being drawn from inside the thief's tuxedo. "I don't think so."

Something small and white flashed through the air. It struck the gas mask in Saguru's hand and, in his surprise, he let it fly out of his grasp. "Shit!" he exclaimed, as Kid nimbly dropped from the wire. They dove for the mask at the same time, colliding and rolling across the cold concrete as both teens fought to wrestle the mask out of the other's grip.

Each frantic breath they inhaled sucked another lungful of gas into their bodies. Saguru struggled not only against the slighter, costumed man but also a steadily encroaching fatigue. The Brit was taller, heavier, and had a longer reach, yet his grasping fingers and attempts to pin the other male down were foiled by the phantom's slipperiness. It took physical strength to keep Kid from wriggling ahead of him and snatching the mask for himself.

After being nearly elbowed in the face, he hissed, "Think about Aoko! The more you do this the more it hurts her!" Kid faltered upon hearing the words, giving Saguru enough leverage to grab the mask before his strength gave out. _Yes!_

Pain exploded at his midriff. The detective gasped and instinctively curled up, clutching where the thief had kneed him. He felt Kid plucking the gas mask from his grip and rolled over, flailing in panic. The gas was already affecting him though, dulling his reflexes. "No!"

The thief easily danced out of his way and hurriedly slipped on the mask. Saguru sprawled across the chilly ground, eyes slowly shutting on the unlit basement. He saw a pair of white loafers fill his vision, white trousers as Kid knelt, and some final, bitter-sounding words spoken into his ear:

"Sleep well, detective."

 

The process of waking left Saguru with a fuzzy taste in his mouth and cold tremors through his body. Light streaming through a nearby window near blinded him on a first attempt to open his eyes. He quickly shut them again.

The ward was filled with quiet murmurs of conversation. A TV buzzed with what sounded like the morning news ( _"...serial killer responsible for five murders last year put to death..."_ ). Curtains were drawn back from the bed to his left and a female voice asked how a 'Mr Towa' was doing.

Beside him, he heard feathers shift and claws flex around plastic. Kenda was awake of course, just like her other half. A moment of fussing and then she feigned sleep like him.

He heard the nurse slide the curtain closed. Slippered steps approached. It was Saguru's turn to have the curtains drawn aside.

"...Mr Hakuba?"

Saguru's groan came through the nose. A second attempt to open his eyes was more successful. The blurry outline of a slender woman in a nurse's outfit came into focus. Dark hair tied back in a bun, a tease of white bandage wrapped around the upper arm, covered mostly by her sleeve. She smiled as he stared at her.

"Good morning. How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Where--" He cleared his throat. "Where am I? What happened last night?" He wasn't sure how much the nurse had been told about what had transpired the night before.

He needn't have worried. "The hospital. You were found asleep in the museum basement. Inspector Nakamori had you brought here after chasing off Kaitou Kid." Her smile crooked upwards. "You'll feel groggy for an hour or so but you should be fine after some rest."

Saguru nodded. His gaze slid over to Kenda, who looked more alert than he felt. She flicked her head around and narrow spheres of gold blinked at him.

"How did the heist go, if I may ask?" he inquired, returning his attention to the woman.

"Oh, Kid escaped again." Her hand covered a giggle. "Not without a few bruises and scrapes from what the TV showed. He tried to lift the statue away with balloons but the inspector shot them. He fell off the statue's shoulders and the police chased him around the museum."

Saguru hummed an 'oh, really'. He hoped Kuroba had not been in too sour a mood to escort Aoko to the concert. "I wish I had been awake to see that," he murmured.

The nurse giggled again and made some notes on the clipboard from the end of Saguru's bed. As she wrote, Saguru's eyes kept being drawn back to the bandage on her arm. It looked like it bound her shoulder. A minor sprain, nothing serious if she was already back to work.

"Sorry," Kenda eventually said - directly to the woman. The nurse jumped.

"Oh! Oh, no, I apologise. We'll need you to stay for a little while longer, until the effects of the gas have passed," she said brightly, hanging the clipboard back. She bowed. "Excuse me."

The pair watched as she made a round through the remaining patients. She left just as a doctor entered, the doctor appearing momentarily confused when she ducked her head and slipped out the door.

Saguru knuckled his forehead and looked sidelong at his daemon. "Was that...?"

Kenda shook out her plumage and began to preen. Saguru stifled his amusement and let his head fall back on the pillow.

 

When they returned to class the next morning, Kuroba and Aoko were in full flight.

"Hey, _hey!_ Watch the arm!" yelped Kuroba as he executed a hairpin turn by bouncing off the wall. Dark blue flashed Saguru's way as the fleeing magician shot by him.

Saguru rolled his eyes and ducked beneath Aoko's mop ("Eek, sorry Hakuba-kun!") on the way to his desk. He pulled out his books and used one as a makeshift shield against the confetti and streamers Kuroba and Ko seemed able to conjure out of nowhere, resigned to the chaos until their homeroom teacher made her appearance.

 _'My horror at his crimes was lost in my admiration at his skill', was it, Holmes?_ A small chuckle escaped him, drowned out by a crash. _He's not Professor Moriarty but he'll do._

. . .

Less than a week later, four heist notices were delivered courtesy of as many white doves landing outside Inspector Nakamori's office window.

All right - Saguru was fairly sure that Kid's decision to host a spate of consecutive heists was payback for the dirty tactic the detective had used during the bronze statue debacle. Thinking about it now, Kuroba's smirk had been a lot more pronounced than usual the day preceding the notices' arrival so Saguru really should have seen this coming.

When his father had delivered the news to him, Saguru had shot a long, forlorn look at the notes, revision, and summaries he had intended to accomplish before the semester ended - all swept aside now so he could prepare for the heists.

Heist number one was nothing special: Kid slipped in through the roof, landed right on top of the target and spent the next half hour leading them all on a merry chase around the building. Kenda got a clawful of fur from the thief's daemon and spent the aftermath being revered by the police dogs.

Heist number two involved a lot of smoke and balloon dummies. Kenda lost several feathers from fright after one burst beneath her claws. Meanwhile Saguru resolved never to tackle Kid to the floor in future, regardless of the circumstances, after he was nearly crushed beneath a pile of officers.

By the end of the third heist, an exhausted detective found himself seeking desperate support from the nearest pillar. The Kaitou Kid Task Force had pushed themselves beyond their limits in pursuit of the seemingly inexhaustible thief - for naught.

"See you tomorrow night, Inspector!" jeered the phantom, flipping off the window ledge and out of the task force's grasping hands.

As Kid's white silhouette faded into the night, Saguru slid down the pillar to the floor. He listened wearily while Nakamori fouled the air with blistering curses and his by now common vows to 'catch him next time'. Yet even those curses were lacking in volume, the reason belied by the way the inspector rubbed his eyes and leaned heavily against an unbroken window.

He was not the only tired one here. Saguru gritted his teeth and got to his feet with grim determination. He would not allow fatigue to best him. He would not allow Kaitou Kid to use his fatigue to _keep_ besting him. He would return home and take the entire day off school tomorrow so that he could chase the bloody show-off later that night.

Kenda paced the floor a short distance away, placing her talons carefully on the polished tiles. She paused, squinted at something then uttered a short exclamation. "Saguru! I found a hair!"

Despite his exhaustion, Saguru managed to walk over, kneel, and pluck the strand between thumb and forefinger (crawling would have been faster, hah). Aching eyes made it hard to tell, but it certainly appeared to be a human hair. It was too long to be a hair from any of the police's daemons, or Kid's.

' _My horror at his crimes was lost in admiration at his skill. But at last he made a trip - only a little, little trip - but it was more than he could afford when I was so close upon him._ ' Saguru rose to his feet, the precious hair clutched between his fingers.

"It seems we may finally have our evidence, Inspector," he pronounced tiredly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daemons mentioned:  
> Keiko Momoi - Colt (young male horse)  
> Unidentified Nichiuri journalist (fem) - Bee
> 
> (And that should be just about all the set-up done. Next chapter returns to Kaito's perspective!
> 
> The rating for this fic was changed to 'Teen' since I realised that the plot may turn a little dark. Don't know why I made it 'General' to begin with. I also added relationship tags to the fic, but they by no means indicate that there will be explicit shipping in this. Nothing beyond what you can find in canon, at least.)


	5. Roses are Red, Blood is Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A nearby enemy shows their hand and a jewel heist goes wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (For those unfamiliar with witches in His Dark Materials: [info here](http://hdm.wikia.com/wiki/Witch). You may notice Akako's abilities do not seem to entirely follow what's written there.)

Chikage Kuroba adjusted the tilt of her wide-brimmed hat as she relaxed outside a Las Vegas cafe. More than six months into her overseas trip to America, she had rekindled a fondness for the twenty-four hour gambling city. Its lavish shows, night life, and spectacles were as alive as the steady stream of humanity which frequented them.

She had set up her mobile tablet on the table while waiting for her coffee to arrive. A hive of chatter from a passing tour group assaulted her ears, the speakers' harsh timbre recognisable as Mandarin. They almost drowned out the chime of her call going through. In short time, the haggard face of her son appeared on screen.

" _Bonjour, mon cher_!" she trilled, leaning forward. Her lips curved into a fond smile and she switched to deliberately-accented English. "You look absolutely dreadful. Have you been staying up late again? If you don't get enough sleep your skin will dry out!"

Kaito, adorable boy that he was, pulled a face. He was already dressed for school and, from the background, making breakfast. "I can't help it," he complained, sticking with his native Japanese. She and Touichi had taught him French and English respectively but he retained a terrible accent while using either. "This new detective just showed up all of a sudden."

"Ooh, a new one?" How thrilling. One thing she did miss about her career as the Phantom Lady was the chase. "What's he like? Give me _all_ the details!"

Her son shifted off-screen to tend to something on the stove. His slightly muted voice filtered through over her noisy surroundings. "He's called Hakuba Saguru. Apparently he's some famous detective in England and he decided to come to Japan just to catch Kaitou Kid." Chikage made an intrigued noise. "He dresses like Sherlock Holmes and he's got a scary eye for detail just like the guy. Jii said he came by the Blue Parrot to ask about dad, and Ko noticed him watching us in class."

"He transferred into your class?" Kaito reappeared on-screen to nod. She clasped her hands and sighed. "How dedicated! That boy is a keeper!"

Kaito made a noise of disgust. " _Mum_ ," he groaned.

She giggled. "Your mother won't mind whether you get together with a boy or a girl, Kaito. Just remember to play safe!"

"Ha ha ha," her son laughed humourlessly. Chikage was quite serious about the matter though, even if she frequently entertained the thought of doting upon future grandchildren.

"Anyway, Kaito, make sure you get a good rest after tonight. Your father wouldn't approve of you making mistakes because of fatigue," she told him.

"Yeah, yeah." Kaito rubbed his eyes as he poured miso soup into a bowl. He would have poured it into his rice if Chikage hadn't noticed and started laughing. "Crap!"

She sat back in her seat, amusement playing up the light in her eyes. Kaito might have inherited his father's skill and charm, but he had her temperament. She saw her single-minded attitude surface in him when he wasn't being a bubbly - if occasionally thoughtless - boy who bounced off the walls scattering confetti in his wake. He took the best traits from both of them. The drive for perfection, though? That was a family trademark.

Her daemon made his appearance while she and Kaito swapped anecdotes about their week. Yudzuki dodged a waiter's feet to scamper up her leg and into her lap. "Yukiko's here," he informed her. And so was Chikage's coffee, what good timing.

"Thank you," she told him, and offered the waiter a flirtatious smile. Her son gave her an unimpressed look that she pretended not to see.

"When are you coming home, mum?" Kaito complained. "You've been in America for months now."

Rather than answer, Chikage allowed herself to catch a glimpse of her watch and gasped. "Oh dear, look at the time! Your mother's meeting a friend so I'll talk to you again later, okay?" She blew a kiss at the screen and reached out to terminate the video call. "Bye-bye!"

"Hey--!"

As soon as the screen went black Chikage lost much of her humour, gaze turning inward as she stroked idle fingers along her daemon's back. Then she heard her name being called and it was all smiles and charm and laughter once more.

Kaito would be all right, she thought. But her fingers drew the mobile tablet towards her. She tapped out a brief message for someone she hoped would be able to help keep an eye on her young progeny, sending it right before Yukiko reached her table. _Just in case_ , she told herself.

. . .

Akako had been acting strangely ever since yesterday, Kaito thought as he fought heavy eyelids and a jaw-breaking yawn. As if the attempt to magic him on Valentine's Day hadn't been enough, she had tried to come between himself and Aoko on their winter school trip, cursed Inspector Nakamori with an evil necklace, and then nearly murdered Kid as he tried to escape from the deranged man. Kaito was tempted to blame his father's costume: ever since he had put it on, it was like he was suddenly a magnet for weird, obsessive types.

Letting his head thump on to folded arms, he gave up on battling sleep and willingly embraced it. That way he wouldn't have to see Akako's predatory gaze - even if he could feel it right now, on his back - and could pretend that everything about his life was fine. Normal schoolboy, Kaito Kuroba, that was him. No heist planning or stalking detective or touchy childhood friend to juggle, no sir.

And speaking of said childhood friend...

"Good _MORNING, Kaito_!" a voice shouted into his ear.

" _Yearrrgh!_ " Kaito's knees hit the bottom of his desk as he jerked upright. Ko yelped at the noise and hit her own head on the bottom of his chair. Nursing his injuries, he twisted around to glower at the one responsible for frightening him. "What the hell, Aoko?!"

"Why are you sleeping this early in the morning?" she asked with a frown. "You're usually full of energy."

"Stayed up late playing a game," he grumbled, propping his chin in his hand. He yawned widely and rubbed his eyes. "Should be asking _you_ why you're so awake, Ahoko."

Kinko bared his teeth. Aoko opened her mouth, about to launch into their usual rapid-fire morning banter when the door to the classroom was shoved aside with a loud rattle.

A haggard Hakuba (plus wavering shoulder-bird) staggered into classroom 2-B looking like a ghost which had dragged itself out of a well and through a television screen. The blonde's normally immaculate hair was tousled, the buttons of his uniform out of alignment. There were even visible bags beneath Hakuba's eyes.

Kaito knew the detective was tired, but he hadn't expected the guy to look _dead_.

"You look exhausted," he called out, fixing a sly grin upon his face. The blonde detective met his eyes and grin with a questioning eyebrow.

"Not as tired as you must be," Hakuba replied. It was the first time the Brit had ever made a vocal allusion - vague as it was - to Kaito's night life and that surprised the magician.

"Tired? I feel just fine," he said, awake enough to remember to feign confusion. Aoko scoffed.

"Yeah, right. You were fast asleep until I woke you up." She got a glare from him for saying that. It was true though: Kaito was ready to sleep the entire day away. He had his own eye bags but he had covered them with make-up.

Hakuba staggered closer. The teenage detective wasn't smirking knowingly today. Kaito had only seen him looking this serious when concentrating on his school work. Ko tensed beneath his seat, ready to bolt.

"Kuroba," Hakuba said, "I would like to invite you to Kid's heist tonight, at the Ooshima Art Museum. Are you free?"

Kaito did not have to pretend confusion this time. He was sure Hakuba suspected his criminal identity. Akako had not been the only one with eyes on him this past week. Was the guy trying to trick him? Trap him? The detective's face was devoid of mockery however. Kaito might have suspected foul play if Hakuba had been wearing any other expression.

"Sure, I'll come," he drawled. The heist would be much simpler if he could walk in through the front doors with Hakuba anyway. Kaito added with a snicker, "I'd love to see how you work."

"Good." Hakuba did muster a ghost of a smile then - and that was even more baffling, because it looked like relief rather than pleasure. His hawk-daemon relaxed a little too much and had to flutter wildly to keep her balance on his shoulder.

Aoko chose that moment to pipe up. "Aoko wants to go too!" she chirped.

"What do you want to go for?" Kaito shot back immediately. He wanted to keep Aoko away from Kid's heists. If something went wrong, if the people he was trying to bait endangered her life, he would never forgive himself.

"To catch Kid, obviously!" She wheeled upon Hakuba. "Aoko can come, right?" she pleaded.

Hakuba hesitated. (Hesitated? That couldn't be right. Surely Hakuba would leap at the chance to expose Kaito's secret to her, to any one of their classmates here.)

"It might be dangerous," the detective tried. "Who knows what Kid might try--"

Aoko was having none of that. "The worst thing that's happened to my dad or anyone chasing him is that they got hit on the head! Dad says Kaitou Kid never hurts anyone if he can help it. Aoko is not going to be in danger, especially not from a stupid thief!" she said hotly.

It was oddly touching to hear that from his friend. Kaito stared at her, at a loss for words.

Hakuba looked conflicted, struggling with some internal arguments he clearly wanted to voice. "Very well," he eventually relented. "I will wait for both you and Kuroba at the museum entrance at half past eight tonight."

"Yay!" Aoko cheered, turning her beaming face on Kaito and making a 'V for victory' sign. "Aoko's going to help dad, Kaito, and Hakuba-kun catch Kid tonight!" Kinko lumbered over and bumped shoulders with Ko as he settled beside her. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Y-yay," Kaito echoed, a nervous smile twitching in place. Hakuba huffed tiredly.

"Then everything is settled--"

"Don't!" A voice rang out sharply. The trio's attention was pulled to the girl whose eyes had been on the back of Kaito's head for the past few minutes. Kaito regarded Akako suspiciously as she approached. Although her objection could have been to any one of them, she had eyes only for him.

"Don't go, Kuroba," she repeated, scarlet eyes flashing. Kaito fought the urge to rub his arms at the shiver which crawled across his skin.

"Why not?" he asked acidly. She clicked her tongue impatiently and grabbed his wrist. His daemon scrambled up in surprise and bounded after them when she began to drag him after her. Neither Aoko nor Hakuba had a chance to object before he was out the door.

"Where the hell are you taking me?" Kaito demanded, digging his heels in. The last two times he had been alone with her, she had tried to either seduce him or kill him. Akako tightened her grip.

"Just be quiet and come!" she said.

Aoko caught up with them in the corridor. "Where are you taking him?" she asked. It was as if some switch had been flicked. Suddenly Akako was all sweet smiles and reassurance.

"Oh, just to the roof for a little chat," she told Aoko airily. "There's something I want to talk to Kuroba about."

"I've got nothing to say to you though," Kaito muttered, taking the opportunity to yank his arm back. _Witch._ Akako shoved him towards the stairs. Apparently he wouldn't be escaping that easily.

"But I do," she said, a hint of a threat now present in her voice. She shoved him again and he stumbled forward. "Walk."

"K-Kaito!" Aoko called out. The pair turned back to her. She fidgeted then balled her fists up. "Don't do anything obscene to Akako!" she yelled.

Kaito spluttered. Akako went red enough to do justice to her name. Ko fled in the wake of hushed giggles from students in the corridor and Kaito was hot on her heels. He took the stairs to the roof several at a time, stomping out on to the blustery, fenced-off space.

This was better. He much preferred the open air to being confined in a room. Kaito drew in a deep breath of crisp post-winter air and let it out slowly. The snow from last month had melted and left a dangerous layer of ice over everything. Both he and his daemon trod cautiously as they made their way to the roof edge.

Aoko didn't have to be so loud, Kaito grumbled privately. He hadn't flipped her skirt in weeks.

Behind him, he heard Akako shut the door to the roof and flinched. Whether or not it had been intentional, it felt like a door shutting on a cage. When he whipped around, he saw that her daemon - a peregrine - now accompanied her.

"So, what does the Great Akako want with me?" he asked, in no mood to play the easy-going classmate with her now that they were alone.

"Tonight at the Ooshima Art Museum, Kaitou Kid will be arrested and have his identity exposed," she intoned, as if delivering a prophecy. Maybe she was. Kaito didn't know what sort of things witches got up to in their spare time.

He snorted. "What's that got to do with me?"

"Don't play stupid," she snapped. "If you go tonight, you'll be caught. I saw it happen!"

Kaito leaned on the wall behind him and crossed his arms, doing his very best impression of a devil-may-care attitude. "Why would I be caught?" he asked, unimpressed. Even with Hakuba's unexpected offer, Kid was prepared to evade the detective's suspicions. "I'm not Kid."

This seemed to frustrate Akako. She marched up to him and jabbed a finger into his chest. "All right," she said, "keep denying it if you want. But if you _are_ Kid, then stay away from the museum tonight!"

Her furious red eyes burned. Between them and her solemn daemon, Kaito realised that she wasn't playing games with him. This wasn't yet another ploy to win his heart or bump him off. She was trying to help.

"I thought you would want him out of the way," he said slowly. "If Kid gets sent to prison, that's every guy you know under your spell, right?" Including Hakuba, yikes. Scary thought.

Mollified that he was finally taking her seriously she stepped back. "Yes," she responded. "But if he does disappear, I think a lot of people would miss him."

Woah. Brain break. Urgent reboot required. Unfortunately Kaito's mouth ran faster than his brain. "Since when do you care about other people?" he exclaimed.

Akako's gaze narrowed and he gulped. In the next second she was smiling so sweetly that Kaito instinctively reached behind him for the wire fence. He would have bolted right up it too, if her daemon hadn't streaked down and tackled Ko to the icy surface. The falcon's claws dug a warning into the coyote's skin, even as a deceptively gentle beak carded out Ko's short fur. His daemon whimpered fear and discomfort.

As Akako sashayed towards him his knees went weak, a pink flush seeping up his neck to infuse both cheeks. It took every bit of self-control he had to not do more than twitch when she caressed a finger down his cheek.

"Kaito," she purred. He shivered. "Weren't you the one who told me I had a hidden jewel of a heart?"

"Uh, um, no, that was..." Kid. That had been Kid. But Kaito shouldn't know that. He pressed his lips together, which only seemed to invite Akako closer.

"That was?" she prompted teasingly. He could feel her breath skimming across the surface of his skin. Her eyes dominated his vision, deep wells of blood matched by the lighter cherry red of her lips. Even a weak winter sun was able to throw the coloured highlights of her hair into relief.

She had tempted him for a kiss before, luring him away from a heist by first luring Ko. She had trapped him outside her house and tried to persuade him to surrender his heart to her. It had taken her daemon's claws drawing a faint crimson spark from his own to remind him that she was dangerous.

The school bell chimed, breaking the reverie Akako held him under. She drew back, face falling in disappointment. Another lost opportunity.

Before she could pull away entirely Kaito reached forward on impulse, stopping her with a touch. Crimson eyes flared expectantly. She allowed him to lean forward until their noses almost touched.

"Akako." This time she was the one to shiver. He was using his other voice, the one that she, the detective downstairs, and all the Kid Task Force knew by ear. "The heart is more precious when it is given freely, not taken."

The shiver turned to a tremble. She started to object, "But--!"

A gentle finger placed upon her lips. He murmured, "Kaitou Kid doesn't steal hearts, nor does he break them. If you want his then you have to earn it."

She stared, speechless. After a couple of drawn out seconds Kaito grinned, shattering the moment. "Just kidding!"

While she was reeling from that, he dodged around her and rescued Ko from her daemon's loosened clutches. He spun on his heel just before the door to the stairs and shot her a rueful smile. "For the record, I like you better when you're yourself," he told her. Then he vanished from sight.

 

Hakuba was absent from the classroom when Kaito returned. "He went home to sleep," Aoko told him as he took his seat. Made sense - Kaito would have stayed home as well if he could have found an excuse that wouldn't make him more suspicious in Hakuba's eyes.

After school, Kaito zipped home as fast as he could. The preparations for tonight had been completed before the serial heist notices had been sent out, so he just had to set an alarm and throw himself into bed. A few hours of solid sleep was better than none.

At eight pm, he met Aoko at the train station and they made the short trip to the museum. A banner above the main entrance advertised the Incan exhibition currently on feature. It was a jewel that was part of this collection that Kaito intended to steal tonight.

Hakuba was waiting for them on the steps outside, much more alert than he had been this morning. For once he was not in his Holmes attire - instead he was in a plain and entirely horrendous brown tweed suit.

"Good evening, Aoko, Kuroba. Please come inside," he said. Was it Kaito's imagination, or did the detective's eyes linger on him a little longer than normal?

Aoko and Kinko bounded through the doors without preamble. She greeted her father cheerfully when they reached the exhibit, Kaito and Ko following at a slower pace. The magician offered a little wave of his own and a wry smile to the inspector. Since the man looked shocked to see them, Kaito gathered that Hakuba had not told Nakamori that they had been invited.

While Aoko was chatting with her father, Hakuba touched his shoulder. "A word with you, Kuroba?" he murmured, inclining his head towards a corridor leading away from the exhibit.

Kaito cast a glance at the jewel and at the large clock visible on the upper floor: 8:45pm, he could spare some time to humour Hakuba. "I'm a popular guy today," he quipped. "Sure."

The corridor was deserted. Inspector Nakamori had his men stationed around the exhibit. A few daemons shot them curious looks, as did their humans, but did not shift from their positions. Hakuba halted out of earshot of the officers but still within line of sight of those facing outwards.

Clever bastard, Kaito thought. It would be suspicious if Kaito tried to drag a sleeping detective and his daemon off-scene.

"Before you do anything rash, please remain calm and hear me out." Hakuba faced him, wearing the most frank and serious expression Kaito had seen him with yet. Ko shifted nervously by his side, slinking partially behind her other half.

"Okay," Kaito said cautiously.

Hakuba gave him a sceptical look at the easy compliance but closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Last night after Kid's heist, I found a hair. DNA analysis of the hair showed that it belonged to someone of Japanese descent, between fifteen to seventeen years of age, possessing black hair and blood type B. Combined with the data I had compiled of Kaitou Kid's physical aspects and traits, I cross-referenced these details with the medical records of every high school student in Japan before eliminating those who did not possess settled daemons resembling a certain species of canid." The detective acted before the words had fully sunk in. Steel snapped over Kaito's wrist and cinched tightly. "Kuroba Kaito," Hakuba continued in a low tone, "you alone matched all the criteria."

_Oh, crap._

Kaito didn't know what his face looked like at the moment. Shocked, probably. Disbelieving, certainly. To buy himself time to gather his wits, his eyes slid down and stared at the handcuff on his wrist, a thin chain linking it to the other half which Hakuba held. A slight twitch of his arm and Hakuba instinctively tightened his grip on the metal. He would not be slipping away that easily.

He looked back up, aware that his expression was now completely blank. Ko had slunk almost completely behind him now, hackles up and just short of a snarl. She wanted to bolt but knew, as her other half did, that she couldn't. Not here, not yet.

Adrenalin tingled at Kaito's fingertips and his toes, itching to fuel a sudden explosion of movement. Behind a calm exterior his heart beat a loud rhythm against his ribcage and his breathing slowed and deepened.

"I-It's just a coincidence, right?" he forced out. Hakuba gave him a look that was almost pitying.

"Unfortunately not. But I will know for certain once the time of Kid's stated arrival comes. Which is in about--"

Watson answered promptly, "Two minutes."

Two minutes. Kaito and Ko traded a glance. They were still in view of some of Inspector Nakamori's officers. Perhaps he could slip out of the handcuffs and make a run for it? Or he could put Hakuba to sleep and pretend the detective had fainted.

... No, regardless of whether they had witnesses or not, trying to escape now would simply confirm that Kaito was the Kaitou Kid. He had not asked Jii to sub for him tonight, having not anticipated Hakuba's move to cuff him on the spot. Either he got away from Hakuba somehow and Kid appeared as stated, or he stayed put, Kid failed to appear, and Hakuba handed him over to Inspector Nakamori. The police had solid DNA samples for Kid thanks to blood spilt during Akako's voodoo, not to mention the hair from last night. Suspicion enough to justify a DNA sample only had to fall on 'Kaito Kuroba' once to ruin him.

His fight-or-flight instincts had kicked into top gear yet Kaito found he could do nothing except stand there and sweat.

Watson fidgeted on her partner's shoulder. "One minute," she said.

Hakuba's gaze shifted sidelong. The elder Nakamori was bellowing a caution in the exhibit room. Kaito caught a glimpse of Aoko and Kinko as they stood back to back next to her father, keeping a watchful eye out for the arrival of the phantom thief.

 _He's right here._ Kaito wanted to laugh.

"For what it's worth," Hakuba began (Kaito jerked in fright), "I haven't told Inspector Nakamori about my findings. He didn't believe the results of the hair's analysis either."

"Why not?" the magician demanded, voice unintentionally climbing higher in his distress. "Why didn't you tell him?!" _And why didn't he believe you when he was so ready to suspect me after just a glimpse of my face?_

The detective stared at the handcuffs he held and the person they linked him to. "Because if I'm right, if you are Kid, then you steal for a reason or reasons that are more important than your friendship with Aoko." Dark brown eyes swivelled upwards, holding Kaito's own blue. "Perhaps more important than your own future, even?" he asked quietly.

Damn it all to hell, poker face did _not_ prepare you for times when over-curious detectives saw so cleanly through your soul like that.

Kaito's smile was all gritted teeth. "That's a very interesting theory, Hakuba." He slipped a hand casually into his pocket. Fingers touched upon one of the many small capsules he kept in there. Screw suspicion. Screw staying still. There was no way he could calmly accept his secret identity being exposed - not with Aoko here, not before he drew out his father's killers. "It's only a theory though." _20, 19, 18..._

Watson's eyes narrowed at him. Hakuba tugged on his side of the handcuffs. "What are you plotting, Kuroba? You must know that any escape attempt now will simply validate my theory?" _11, 10, 9..._

The magician's grin widened a fraction. As he withdrew his hand to shrug, the capsule he had palmed slipped out of his pocket and pinged upon the ground. Thick smoke rushed out immediately, obscuring the pair and their daemons. Kaito jerked the handcuffs out of Hakuba's grip while the detective was recoiling and fled down the corridor, away from the exhibit. He would circle around, change, and appear in Kid's guise as planned.

Just as the handcuffs clattered to the floor, he heard a screech behind him and dove into a forward roll. Watson's claws raked the air and he was up and running again while she was circling for another try.

"Kuroba!" That was Hakuba. Pounding footsteps pursued him up the stairs to the first floor. Watson bombed him again and nearly caught his sleeve. Kaito and Ko separated at the top, the magician tugging out his costume while he prepared another smoke bomb. He could hear cries of alarm and "Kid!" from the main exhibit.

'Kid'?

There was a bang. Someone screamed.

Kaito fumbled with the smoke bomb. Dropped it anyway. He effected a quick costume change and flew out of the grey clouds as the phantom thief.

Officers on this floor cried out their surprise as he whisked past them. Kaito dodged them all, skidded around a corner and slammed into the first floor balcony railing. He looked out over the exhibit and felt his blood run cold.

There was another Kid down there. They straddled a branch that inexplicably hovered in mid-air. Numerous cuffs attached to long leads prevented both branch and rider from floating upwards. Nakamori's secret weapon for tonight, no doubt. The jewel he had been angling after was in the imposter's clutches, but--

There was a scarlet bloom seeping through the other Kid's white tux, at the shoulder. The imposter's glove was already well-stained with red. They had been shot.

"Where's the shooter?" he whispered, echoed just a second later by Inspector Nakamori. He twisted around, sweeping over the milling, confused men above and below, some beginning to notice and point him out. Only policemen should have guns here and they were under strict orders not to fire during heists. Nakamori would have spotted anyone who shouldn't be here in his security sweeps. Did that mean...?

Shouts from behind: the officers he had dodged earlier had caught up to him. He vaulted the railing and landed on the floor below, a cat amongst blue pigeons. His card gun snapped out and shot a razor card into an exposed electrical circuit box. The lights went out at once.

Confusion reigned. Kaito didn't have time to think about how the darkness would also help the shooter get away or return for a second shot. He and the other Kid had to disappear _now_.

A sprint and a leap let him grab on to the hovering branch and swing himself behind Akako. Razor cards took care of all the cuffs holding them back and then they were soaring through the open window.

"Ko!" he yelled out, searching the inky ground frantically for his daemon. A series of yips helped him pinpoint the coyote: she was keeping pace with them. Thankfully the branch was flying low, skimming the treetops. The distance was uncomfortable but not unbearable.

"Akako," he hissed. He was aware that he had his arms around her, gripping the wood just behind her hands. Her body was trembling against his. "You need to set down. We have to take a look at your shoulder!"

She made no response. He covered one of her hands with his and heard her breath hitch.

"Akako," he repeated more quietly, in his normal voice. "It's okay. We're safe now."

That seemed to get through to her. Giving a shaky nod, she angled the branch towards the ground. Out of the darkness, the dim, streamlined form of her falcon-daemon appeared beside them. His flight was unsteady. "There's a park just over that way," he told them, pointing with his beak. "I will fly back and see what the situation is."

"Be careful," Kaito told him. The daemon nodded and winged off. The magician watched him go with some envy, wishing he knew how witches' daemons were able to travel so far from their human.

They set down within a small copse of trees, in the shadows thrown by the park's sparse lighting. Ko met them on the ground.

"As soon as Hakuba heard the gunshot he went to look for the shooter," she panted. "Was that Horus who flew off?"

"Yeah." Immediately after his feet touched the ground he got under Akako's arm and supported her. She leaned heavily against him, whimpering whenever movement jolted her wound. Kaito gently lowered her to the ground and had her lean against a tree. Rummaging in his pockets for a small flashlight, he shone it at Akako's shoulder and sucked in a sharp breath.

"Ko, hold this for me." He passed the flashlight to her and she held it carefully in her mouth, the pale spot of light wavered in place as he carefully unbuttoned the tuxedo and pushed it away from Akako's shoulder. The button-up shirt beneath bore a larger bloodstain than what had come through the tux, but it wasn't as widespread as he had been expecting.

Kaito bit his lip. They couldn't take her to a hospital. A bullet wound would immediately provoke questions from the police. Inspector Nakamori would have people looking out for any people with unexplained gunshot wounds from tonight. However, Kaito didn't possess the necessary knowledge to deal with such an injury in private.

"Sorry, Akako," he muttered as he gently levered her forward to check the back of her shoulder. No penetration. That meant it was still inside her. No wonder there wasn't much blood. The bullet was acting as a plug. "Fuck," Kaito swore, and then added a few more choice cusses in French.

"What do we do?" he whispered helplessly, looking to Ko. Her tail twitched agitatedly.

"Call Jii first," she decided after a few moments. "He might know a doctor we can trust."

Kaito pulled out his phone and speed-dialled the old man. It went through after the second ring.

"Young master, what...?"

"Jii-chan, someone's been shot!" he hissed. "Not me," he said quickly, overriding cries of panic from the other end. "A girl in my class. Do you know a doctor?"

He could hear clattering over the connection. Jii babbled about knowing some basic surgery but nothing about bullet wounds because Touichi Kuroba had never received such a serious injury before. Pages turned frantically. Ko glanced around as they waited, paranoia and worry increasing with each passing second. Kaito couldn't take his eyes off the bloodied tuxedo.

He bit back a shriek when something grabbed his sleeve.

"Home..." That was Akako.

"Home?" he repeated, surprised. He heard Jii echo him on the phone.

She tightened her grip, as if expecting him to flee at any moment. "My...home. Butler..."

Ah. "Change of plan. Jii, can you come pick us up?" He told him the name of the park and ended the call. "Stay awake for me okay?" he told Akako. "I'll get you home and then your butler or whatever can fix you up."

Akako shook her head slightly and grimaced. "No. Buer..."

"Buer?"

Kaito couldn't get much else out of her that was coherent. Fifteen minutes later Jii and Chuuta pulled up with a screech of tyres. As the old assistant was helping Kaito prop Akako up on the backseat, Horus reappeared looking even worse than his other half. He landed heavily on the car roof.

"There are police everywhere," he gasped. "Ginzo Nakamori called Division 1 to the scene. Almost impossible to get back in." The falcon wavered and Kaito caught him when he began to tumble off. He quickly laid the bird next to Akako and shot a look at Jii.

"Let's get her to her house," Kaito said, not wanting to think about how his identity had been blown within a week of the new detective arriving at his school. He would deal with that kettle of f-- uh, marine life, when he was sure his classmate wasn't going to bleed out.

It was a hair-raising drive to Akako's home, an old, creepy-looking mansion straight out of a Western horror film. Akako was barely conscious and leaned heavily on her human crutch, Kaito. He could hear her ragged breathing every time his steps jolted her shoulder. Jii went ahead to bang the heavy, brass knockers on the front doors, which summoned the butler almost immediately.

"Lady Akako!" he exclaimed. Kaito blinked in surprise, not expecting Akako's butler to be a short, hunchbacked and, frankly, ugly specimen of human. Surely with her magic she could have enthralled a more handsome man?

"She has a bullet in her shoulder," he told the butler, staggering across the threshold with Akako. Jii hovered outside, kept at bay by the butler's silently staring daemon. "She said something about...'Buer'?"

Comprehension flared in the crooked man's eyes. "I see. You may leave Lady Akako in my care," he said, holding out his arms. Kaito carefully helped him to take Akako's weight. For his stature, the butler was surprisingly sturdy. "Please, do not feel you have to linger. I will take care of everything."

Kaito was unceremoniously shooed out of the mansion, the double doors almost shutting on his cape and Ko's tail with a solid thud. He stared worriedly at the dark, heavy wood for a time.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Ko told him uncertainly.

"I hope so." The four of them returned to the car. As Jii started the engine, Kaito began to pull off his costume and change back into casual wear. "The police won't be able to cover up the fact that Kid got shot tonight. I'm probably going to have to take a break until Akako's recovered."

"Should I return to the museum, young master?" Jii asked from the front. His eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror, edges creased with worry.

Kaito folded up his tuxedo and cape and started stuffing everything into his pockets. Before he could answer, his phone buzzed. He flipped it open and saw a text message from Aoko.

> _Kaito, where are you? Hakuba-kun said to let you know that Kid got away and he wants your help to find the person who shot him. I told him you wouldn't know anything about it but he said to tell you anyway._

  
He and his daemon stared at the message, surprised. If he was reading this correctly, it sounded like Hakuba was saying it was safe for him to return to the museum. Could he trust the foreign detective, or was it a trap? After the guy had dropped Aoko's name during the statue heist, Kaito was leery of this roundabout method of contacting him.

"Young master?" Right, Jii was waiting for his response.

"...To the museum, yeah," he said reluctantly. If it was a trap, at least he would go into it knowing what it was. Kid had escaped from less favourable situations before (' _Including the one just before?_ ' a part of him asked sarcastically). Kaito slid forward in his seat and clasped Jii's shoulder. "Just in case, Jii-chan: if I don't text you within thirty minutes after I walk inside, assume the worst has happened."

The old man's eyes widened. "Young master," he said weakly, "you can't mean...?"

Kaito smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry," he said with forced cheer, "Kaitou Kid is a phantom - no-one and nothing can catch him!"

He wished he felt as confident as he sounded, Kaito thought as Jii pulled over on a street out of sight of flashing police sirens, under the cover of some trees. Horus had been right: there were at least twice as many police cars as there had been at the start of the evening, and one ambulance nestled amongst them. Kaito and his daemon climbed out of Jii's car silently and shut the door, alert for any stray eyes. Assured the coast was clear he flashed the old man a thumbs-up before darting low and zig-zagging towards the building. Ko was a smudge of brown beside him as they came up to one of the service doorways. Kaito picked the lock with ease and together they slipped inside.

Unless the police had suddenly gained in efficiency, the security footage should still be on a loop. All Kaito had to do was ensure he didn't meet anyone on his way back to the main hall. The last thing he needed was awkward questions about why he was somewhere he shouldn't be. After a few tense minutes skirting patrols, he popped out of a corridor and casually slipped in amongst the chaos that had taken over the Incan exhibit.

From the surface chatter, Kaito managed to surmise the shooter had been disguised as a police officer. A man had been found unconscious in a toilet stall, stripped of his uniform. Kaito edged through to the heart of the hubbub: Inspector Nakamori, Aoko, and Hakuba were gathered together, deep in discussion.

Hakuba, of course, was the first to spot him approaching. "Ah, Kuroba. There you are," he called out. Before he could say anything more, Ko was accosted by Kinko and Kaito himself confronted with an angry, worried Aoko. Kinko's bulk bowled Ko over and the two daemons wrestled on the ground.

"Where the hell have you been, Bakaito?!" she yelled at him, thumping his shoulder. "Don't tell Aoko you've been in the bathroom this whole time! It's been an hour!"

"Uh..." Kaito floundered. Crap. He hadn't prepared an excuse. He threw a panicked look at Hakuba and the detective, surprisingly, came to his rescue.

"Kuroba said he had a call to make," the detective offered blandly. "No doubt he got caught in the confusion outside and was only just allowed in."

What, seriously? "Y-yeah. Sorry for making you worry, Aoko." Aoko sniffed disdainfully.

"Stupid. At least you're safe." And she suddenly threw her arms around him and gave him a firm squeeze. "Don't scare Aoko like that again," she muttered into his shirt.

Kaito laughed unsteadily, but a warm, happy bloom in his chest melted away his tension. He rested his chin on her shoulder, smiling at how Ko had ended up sprawled beneath Kinko. "I'll try not to."

They would have remained like that for a while had Hakuba not cleared his throat, reminding them of his presence. "I apologise, Aoko, but I need to borrow Kuroba again."

The pair sprang apart like scalded cats, both blushing furiously and refusing to meet each other's eye. Their daemons disentangled themselves more reluctantly, slinking back to their respective halves.

Kaito followed Hakuba a few steps aside. Aoko's father was bellowing orders into a wireless radio and oblivious to the two younger males. A more rotund man in a fedora was doing the same, albeit in a quieter, more authoritative tone.

"Where's Watson?" Kaito asked. He had not seen the bird in his quick observation of the area.

"She's nearby." Hakuba's voice turned brisk. "Now then: from what the inspector's men say, after Kid landed on the pedestal and claimed the jewel, he or she produced a long branch. After straddling it and attempting to fly off, the inspector activated his...secret weapon, and halted the thief's escape. At that moment, a gun was fired and the bullet appeared to strike Kid's shoulder. From the trajectory--"

"Wait, wait, wait. Why're you telling me this? I'm not gonna be any help with this detective thing," Kaito objected. "I'm just a high school student."

Hakuba seemed to find that funny. "So am I," he said, before continuing. "As I was saying: from the trajectory, I estimate the shooter to have been standing in the vicinity of the balcony up there." The detective pointed upstairs at the railing which, Kaito abruptly realised, he had been standing at dressed as Kid. The magician looked back and frowned at Hakuba suspiciously but the other teen simply watched him without a change in expression.

"Of course, I can only hypothesise as to their position given I have not had the chance to see the wound inflicted by the bullet," Hakuba said eventually. "But they were certainly standing on the left-hand side of this exhibit given the way Kid recoiled back."

No mention of the second Kid, i.e. Kaito. What the hell was Hakuba playing at? He glanced at the upper floor and bit his lip. "I don't know," he said slowly. He saw Hakuba opening his mouth and quickly jumped in. "There were so many policemen around, how is anyone supposed to tell one guy from another? I got here after everything happened, remember?"

Translation: _I didn't see anyone running away upstairs. I know it was probably a policeman. I got there too late to see the culprit._

Hakuba seemed to understand. Prat he might be, but Kaito was really grateful for his intelligence and ability to read between the lines right now.

"I see." The blonde turned thoughtful. "Do you mind if we exchange numbers? I may need your advice on some follow-up matters."

 _Like hell you're going to get my number and stalk me more than you are already_ ... was what he wanted to say, but he had no reason, as Kaito Kuroba, to refuse.

"Sure," he said, forcing a smile.

As they finished keying their respective numbers into each other's mobiles, Inspector Nakamori finally stomped over.

"All right, you kids should go home now. We're closing this area down for an investigation," he said gruffly.

"I'll take Aoko home, sir," Kaito said quickly, beating Hakuba to the punch. The Brit closed his mouth, face painted with amusement.

Nakamori nodded and passed a hand over his eyes. Guilt pricked at Kaito as he remembered that it was his fault for tiring out Aoko's father. He must have been looking forward to crashing into bed once all the usual paperwork had been filed, but now he had to oversee a shooting. Possibly attempted murder.

"C'mon, Aoko," Kaito called, turning towards her. Ko threw a lingering look at the inspector and Hakuba before following at his heels.

As they walked further away from the pair of detectives, Kaito allowed relief to show in his expression. He flipped open his phone while Aoko ranted about Kid and the shooter and texted a single word to Jii:

> _Safe._

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daemons mentioned:  
> Akako Koizumi - Peregrine falcon, 'Horus'  
> Akako's butler - unknown
> 
> (Buer is one of the demons which can be found in the Lesser Key of Solomon. Basic information can be found on [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buer_%28demon%29).)


	6. A Fox and his Hounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaito's relationship with Aoko worsens and another teenage detective steps into the spotlight.

Early morning of the Saturday following the Incan jewel heist: Kaito was dead to the world, firmly wrapped in a cocoon of bedsheets with his daemon splayed next to him on her back. Her rear leg twitched from time to time, an unconscious response to whatever dreams her human was having.

Kaito awoke to the feel of his mobile ringing, vibrating in his back pocket. He had fallen asleep in his clothes. Groggy, he tugged the phone out, flipped it open and pressed the answer button without looking at the caller.

"Hello?" he mumbled.

"Kaito! Don't tell me you're still asleep!"

He winced at the shout. Oh gods, it was Aoko. "Uh, yeah?" He rolled over and the sheets wrapped tighter. He kicked them aside so that he could sprawl, eyelids resolutely glued down. "Whadday'want?" he slurred.

"You idiot, you said you would go to Shibuya with Aoko this morning!"

"...I did?"

There was a loud huff on the other end. "Two weeks ago! Remember, I said that brand were releasing a new product today and I wanted to buy it? Don't tell me you forgot."

He had. Kaito dragged a hand down his face with a low groan, finally working up the courage to peek at his digital clock. 5:49am, the display read. "Really?" he asked incredulously. "You wanna go _now_?"

" _It's launch day._ The lines are going to be ridiculously long if we go later. If you're not up in fifteen minutes, Aoko is going to come over and kick your door down," she threatened.

"Fine! Fine, geez." Kaito let hand and phone fall back on to the pillow after she hung up and squinted at the blurry image of his ceiling. "Lesson number thirteen. Keep this in mind, Ko," he said tiredly. "Don't schedule more than one heist a week ever again."

Somehow Kaito managed to change and go through his morning routine without tripping down the stairs or putting his shirt on backwards. In sixteen minutes he stumbled out the door with Ko, dressed but still only half-awake, and met Aoko on her way to deliver good on her door-kicking promise (she punched him anyway for his tardiness). He fought back several yawns while Aoko tugged (more like dragged) him into the morning peak hour crush then endured the discomfort of having hundreds of commuters press against himself and Ko on their way to work. After all that, he was again pulled by Aoko through the streets of Shibuya towards one of the larger department stores.

"I forgot my umbrella," he realised as he shot a look at the grey skies, belatedly recalling the forecast for today.

Aoko rolled her eyes. "Aoko thought you might forget so she brought two," she said, taking one out of her bag.

"Ah, thanks," he said sheepishly as he took it. She turned her nose up and marched ahead. Kaito jogged to keep up, unable to suppress a smile.

The line was already snaking down to the corner of the street by the time they arrived. Kaito stared at it in despair until his stomach growled and reminded him that he had dashed out the door without breakfast. "Don't suppose Ko and I could go grab something to eat while you two line up?" he asked hopefully.

Aoko flapped her hand at him. "Don't take too long. Wait, can you get Aoko food as well?"

Kaito saluted and jogged off with his daemon. He was pretty sure there was a bakery down the street. He'd grab some bread for them both and be back in less than fifteen minutes.

On his way there he passed by a small crowd huddled around the television screen display for an electronics boutique. Kaito slowed and tried to peer between the press of bodies and daemons. What was going on that was so interesting?

"Unconfirmed reports... --tou Kid..." Snatches of a female voice found their way to his ears. The mention of Kid piqued his interest immediately.

"Don't tell me the news stations found out about last night already," he murmured to Ko.

"The inspector requested a media blackout for the shooting," Ko agreed, sounding as worried as he felt.

Kaito lingered, trying to catch more of the report. Unfortunately the press of bodies refused to yield. He broke away from the swelling gathering, brought out his tablet and scrolled quickly through the newsfeed. Yep, someone had managed to break the story despite the police's effort to keep last night's events quiet.

He put the tablet away. "Remind me to look into this when we get home," he told Ko.

It was some trouble to find Aoko again since the line had tripled in length by the time he returned from the bakery. He walked past her twice before spotting her fuzz of brown hair. She took the food he offered her and chatted animatedly about items in a flyer she had brought while he all but fell asleep on his feet for the next two hours.

At precisely nine o'clock, a cheer went up from the front of the line. The doors were open.

Kaito rapidly blinked away his fatigue. "Hold on to me, I think this is gonna get hectic." He took Aoko's hand as the line surged forward. Any semblance of order was lost in the queuers' excitement. Daemons of all shapes and sizes dashed about madly, getting underfoot and starting as many fights between themselves as between the humans they belonged with. Even Ko and Kinko, sticking as close to Kaito's and Aoko's ankles as they were, had to snap at a few who tried to pass them.

Closer to the entrance, a jaunty pop song played over a pair of loudspeakers. A sharply dressed woman with a chipper bird-daemon stood aside from the crowd, microphone in hand and a third, smaller speaker beside her. From what Kaito could catch above the noise, she was rattling off a welcome to the customers and a sales pitch for the new product.

"Good morning, shoppers! We would like to welcome you all to the launch of our new product: Eterna Cream! Look younger after just one day! Through careful scientific research, LAL has managed to formulate a unique compound which sinks deep into the skin--"

"I can't believe I let you drag me out here," Kaito moaned to Aoko as they were pushed into the store itself.

Aoko didn't hear him. Her eyes were fixed on the cosmetics section and she tugged him forward eagerly. "Hurry up, Kaito!"

With a heavy sigh he allowed her to lead. Ko and Kinko tried hard not to be trod underfoot but one woman accidentally stepped on the sun bear's paw, prompting an enraged, "Hey!" from Aoko. A scuffle almost broke out then and there but Kaito quickly yanked his childhood friend aside.

"Not worth it," he hissed at her while Ko licked the other daemon's injury. This time it was Kaito who took the lead, ducking and weaving through the crowd with ease of practice. They popped out close to the quickly shrinking product display, where Kaito's sleight of hand came in handy for stealing something other than precious art. Ouch, that price tag.

With a small flourish, he bestowed a jar of cream upon Aoko. "Your overpriced face cream, my lady!" he proclaimed.

"Shut up," she said, blushing as she snatched it from him.

They fought their way through to a less busy section of the store. Kaito surveyed the seething mass of humanity they had left behind with a grimace while Ko shook herself roughly and glared at the humans. "What did this company do to get such hype? It's worse than one of Kid's heists," she ground out.

Kinko grumbled at the thief's mention. Aoko contained herself to a sniff. "Oh, LAL's just made a lot of beauty products lately that really seem to work. Keiko swears their skincare range is the best so Aoko bought one of their lotions a few months ago."

"You know it's all just marketing, right?" Kaito drawled, recalling six months' worth of self-experimentation and decimated bank balance.

"This is different!" Aoko argued. "They really do what they say! Aoko had dry skin and she used the lotion. After an hour Aoko's cheeks were fine. Here," she grabbed Kaito's hand and put it against her face, "see?"

Kaito yanked his hand back quickly. A furious dusting of pink coloured his cheeks. "All right, all right. I get it!" Aoko huffed at him.

"Come on, let's pay and leave before they trample us," she said, tilting her head back towards the horde. Kinko nudged at Kaito's daemon and the four of them moved off.

If the line for the new cream had been long, the queue for the cashiers was longer. He, Aoko, and their daemons stumbled out on to the street after witnessing several catfights between women, a messy breakup, and one worker reduced to tears by a customer. A unanimous decision was made to recuperate at a nearby coffee shop.

"What time did your dad get in last night?" Kaito asked over his hot chocolate. Aoko's hands were wrapped around her mug, warming chilled fingers. The cream was tucked away into her handbag.

"Don't know. Aoko was asleep by then." Now that the excitement of this morning was wearing off, she seemed tired. "Do you think," she began hesitantly, "that whoever shot Kid, they wanted what he was stealing? Because they _shot_ him. Why would they need to do that? He's never hurt anyone, and shooting him... shootings just don't happen here!"

Kaito watched the steam rise from his drink. That was a question he wanted to avoid dwelling on, but it had to be confronted. Why shoot Kid and why now? Kid had been heisting for just over six months. There had been plenty of better opportunities to snipe him. What had made last night's heist different from the rest?

Were his father's killers finally starting to show their hand?

"Who knows?" he said aloud. "Kid got away, so I doubt they were trying to off him." He tittered. "That, or they were such a bad shot they meant to kill him and missed."

"This is a serious issue," Ko interjected quietly. "Let's not make light of it."

The magician sobered and looked off to the side. "Sorry."

Aoko had puffed herself up to shout at him but she deflated at Ko's rebuke. She glanced between the pair uncertainly. "You two really are different," she said quietly. "You used to be like... one person. Two idiots sharing the same joke. But now you're two idiots sharing a secret." Kaito couldn't see, yet he could tell by the tension in her shoulders that she was clasping her hands tightly. "Aoko wants to know what that secret is," she stated. Her eyes flicked up briefly, steel blue and full of the stubbornness he loved about her. "Aoko let you avoid it in school, but she-- _I_ want to know now. So tell me. Or Aoko will drag you to the fish market," she threatened.

Kaito blanched at the mention of the f-word. "We've known each other how long?" he bit back. "It's like you don't trust me anymore."

He saw hurt flash across Aoko's face and, most distressingly, her daemon shrink away from him and Ko like they had delivered a physical blow. Kaito immediately wished he could take his words back.

"You're right, Aoko doesn't!" Kaito flinched; heads turned, attracted by the shout. She continued loudly, heedless of their small audience. "Aoko has known you for almost ten years and you were always trying to be like your dad with all your silly tricks and magic. But now Aoko doesn't know who you are!" She grabbed her handbag. Kaito tried to stop her standing but she knocked back his hand.

"I still want to be like him, Aoko," he insisted.

"Really?" she asked. "Then why did you suddenly start idolising Kid and making fun of my dad? Why are you always so busy these days when Aoko knows you have no after-school club activities or do any of the homework we get?"

"Because..." Kaito, who usually had an answer (or a lie) for everything, found himself at a loss for words. He glanced at his daemon. Ko stared at him helplessly.

Aoko settled the strap of her handbag on her shoulder. "See?" she said after no immediate answer was forthcoming. "Secrets."

Without a backward glance she and Kinko stalked out of the cafe. Kaito quickly lost sight of them amongst a sea of commuters and shoppers, as the first drops of rain began to fall.

 

Nakamori thundered into Kaitou Kid Task Force's office, a copy of the morning newspaper fisted in one hand. He shook the paper furiously before him. "All right, who told the media? Hands up so I can see you!" he bellowed, punctuated by Ganseki's growl.

His eyes roamed the faces of his subordinates. He saw plenty of heads turn, searching, as he was, for the potential culprit. When every eye had returned to him, none looking the least bit ashamed or guilty, he bristled behind his toothbrush moustache, stomped to his desk and slapped the broadsheet down in disgust. "Nichiuri got their grubby hands on last night's shooting. So now not only do we have to deal with the bastard who shot Kid, we have to deal with the coverage as well! I want a PR team to fend off the parasites until I can put together a damn statement for them!" He pointed out someone. "You! Matsumoto. You're in charge of it."

The man saluted him. Nakamori pointed out another officer. "Terasaka, anything new?"

The woman shook her head. "No blood from the scene, no DNA from either the shooter or the two Kids."

Namamori crossed his arms, glowering. "Why were there two Kids there to begin with?" he muttered. One of whom had been riding a branch like a witch! Real witches had not been seen in Japan in over fifty years so the very thought was ridiculous. It had to be another of the bastard's damned tricks.

There was a knock on the door. It opened to admit a portly inspector from Division 1: a man more familiar with homicides than Nakamori and who was lending his assistance for the interim.

"Megure," he said gruffly, acknowledging the man with a nod. He eyed the youth who had followed Megure in, flicking over the small owl perched on their shoulder. They looked vaguely familiar. "Who is this? Isn't he too young to be here?"

"This is Kudo Shinichi. He's been helping our department since last year," Megure said. "Kudo, this is Inspector Nakamori Ginzou." The youth flashed Nakamori a cocky grin - another flash of deja vu - and to his surprise stuck out their hand instead of bowing.

"A pleasure, Inspector Nakamori," the teenager said. The face and voice together were like a trigger to the entire Task Force.

"K-Kid!" Nakamori yelled, pointing a finger at the startled teen. Chairs were knocked backwards as the task force leapt to their feet. The room was filled with growls and hisses from their accompanying daemons.

Three short, sharp barks from Megure's pit bull daemon cut through the aggression. She stared down every daemon eye which met hers, authority filling every inch of her short stature. Her human followed up with his own glare.

"Stand down, all of you!" Megure ordered. He had thrown an arm before Kudo, shielding the younger male from everyone else. "I can vouch for him. He is not Kaitou 1412!"

The Kid task force subsided uncertainly. Chairs were picked up and righted. Some sat back down but others, like Nakamori, remained standing and wary.

"Are you sure?" he ground out. The odds had to be several billion to one. The face was so similar to that of his daughter's childhood friend that Nakamori would have laid money on the two boys being separated twins. And their voice: it was the current Kid's for certain. The inflections differed a little, but essentially it was identical.

Logically, he knew Kid was a master of disguise who could easily throw his voice and change his appearance to resemble this youth's for the sake of heists. This Kudo might have no relation to the thief whatsoever. To Kaito, however...

"My whereabouts can be accounted for during almost every one of Kaitou 1412's thefts," Kudo said. He gently pushed Megure's arm down and stepped forward. "If you like, I can forward a copy of the alibis I compiled for Inspector Megure."

Nakamori grunted. "Yes, if you could."

"Excellent. Now that that's out of the way..." Kudo's daemon swivelled her head sharply to the inspector, large eyes matching the gleam and focus of her partner's. "Tell me what you have on the incident so far."

 

In the privacy of the hidden Kid room, Kaito fiddled with his earphones' cord and listened to Inspector Nakamori take the new guy through Friday night's heist. Shinichi Kudo, huh? The guy had been in the papers lately. He shared the same smug expression as Hakuba and sounded even cockier, if that were possible.

An image of Kudo occupied a quarter of his computer screen: a photo from an online article about the detective. The resemblance was indeed uncanny. "I don't need another smart-ass on my tail," Kaito muttered. He hoped Kudo's involvement was limited to the shooting and nothing more.

Ko, lying a small distance away with a set of crime scene photographs before her, looked up. "From what I've read, he has a 100% success rate. He is not known for his leniency."

Kaito scowled. "Well, Kid's taking a break for a few weeks anyway. I can wait until he's gone and then go back to heisting."

"Remember to check on Akako," Ko reminded him, pawing aside one of the photographs.

"We can drop by tomorrow night." He slid off his seat and crawled over to the pile of photos. "Find something?"

"Not really." Ko nudged over the picture she had isolated. "An empty shell was found at the scene. The gun that was used belonged to the impersonated officer and was left behind. No fingerprints whatsoever."

"Dead end. _Excellent_ ," he mimicked in Kudo's voice. He got to his feet and wandered to the dusty, white convertible that took up a good quarter of the secret room, one hand speed-dialling Jii. "Are you okay to talk now, Jii-chan?"

"One moment, young master." Cloth rustling with movement. A door opening and shutting. The background noise from the billiards hall muted. "Is something the matter?"

"You said I should try targeting jewels now since that was what dad was doing before he died, right?" Kaito ran a hand over the car's dull surface. A film of dust came away on his fingertips. "Do you know what kind of jewel specifically?"

"No. But Master Touichi did go after unusual ones. He never told me why beyond that certain men wanted him to steal them. I think perhaps he did not know either, or if he did, he did not tell me."

Kaito traced Kid's caricature into the dust covering the old car. "So target the 'weird' ones, whatever that means. They should crawl out again if I do that."

"Please be careful, Young Master Kaito. I would never forgive myself if you were injured."

Kaito obliterated the dust drawing and wiped his hand on his shirt, leaving pale brown streaks on the material. His voice was flat. "I chose to do this, Jii-chan. If something happens to me, you're the last person who should blame themselves."

After ending the call, he opened another browser tab on his computer and lost himself in jewel research for a few hours. Fatigue finally pushed him to bed in the late hours of the night. He stepped out of the hidden room and rested a hand on the rotating panel after it locked into place, just beside the smiling non-Kid figure of his father.

"I'll find them, dad," he promised the image.

Sunday saw him catching up on all his lost hours of sleep. He woke up past midday and bounced straight out of bed. Much of that day was spent in the Kid room, following up on yesterday's research and tinkering with items in the room. He still couldn't beat his dad's record in picking open some of the trickier locks, but he improved upon his own times.

When the sun finally sank below the horizon, he and Ko paid a visit to Akako's home.

Akako was still recovering, according to her butler. He caught Kaito - Kid - lurking outside the window to the dining room and almost scared the magician-thief up a tree. After being reassured that the lady of the house was not in a serious condition and having the jewel handed over to him so he could return it, Kaito-as-Kid took his leave.

Monday morning marked the beginning of the last week of their final semester as second years. In comparison to his energy during the weekend, a listless Kaito now sprawled across the length of his desk, listening to his classmates make plans for the holidays. He had no heists to look forward to, no Aoko trying to drag him into outings with her either because she was chatting happily to Keiko and treating him like a piece of furniture, making plans that did not involve 'Jerkaito'.

His mobile buzzed once. A text message. The teacher was just walking in, so he quickly snuck a look before they were asked to stand and bow.

> _Kuroba,  
>  Meet me on the roof during lunch._

  
The magician shot a look at Hakuba over his shoulder. The blonde was staring straight ahead, face perfectly composed and giving away nothing of his thoughts. A glance up: Watson was watching him in her human's stead. She cocked her head at him but did not look away.

It didn't feel like a trap.

So at lunch he headed upstairs. Hakuba was on the far side of the rooftop, well away from the stairwell and conversing quietly with his daemon.

"You wanted to see me?" Kaito asked warily as he approached. The pair broke off their conversation to face him. Watson was staring at him strangely so he made sure to halt a good metre away from her beak and/or talons.

The human half of the detective pair gave a short nod. "Given the events at the previous Kid heist, we would like to offer an apology for suspecting you, Kuroba, and Kozare." Hakuba's voice was modulated, professional.

Kaito wasn't sure that the surprise was completely absent from his face. "What brought this on?" he asked suspiciously.

A raised eyebrow. Hakuba somehow managed to be sarcastic without changing his tone. "A theory that I thought had been correct was proven wrong. In quite a public manner, no less."

"Cut the crap, Hakuba," Kaito snapped. He took a step forward, ignoring the twitch from the other teen's daemon. "You had the proof. You and I both know that there were two--"

"Kuroba." Kaito shut his mouth and stared. Hakuba did not interrupt people as a general rule. As Hakuba ran fingers through his hair, the magician realised the detective's hand had faint veins of tension running along the back. "Kid was shot on Friday night," the blonde pronounced slowly, as if Kaito was hard of hearing or comprehension. "I'm sure you are aware that the media already have a hold of the story. Given that the injury was not serious enough to prevent his escape, my concern is two-fold: first, that Kid will attempt another heist in the near future. Perhaps not this month but the next, surely. And second, that whoever shot Kid on Friday will appear at Kid's next heist and complete what they attempted." Hakuba watched Kaito steadily. "I would rather not give them a target at all, but I wanted to pass on the warning to someone who may be as invested in Kid's survival as I am."

"That doesn't explain what you're doing," Ko spoke up, eyes narrowed at the detective pair. "Makes more sense to have Kid where you can keep an eye on him, right?"

Watson dissolved into a peal of laughter which startled them all. No-one was more surprised to hear it than Hakuba, who managed a crooked smile.

"Well," the Brit mused, "if I could, I would take him to England with me. I'll be flying back home after the semester ends but I will be returning to Tokyo for the start of our third year." The smile edged into a smirk. "Are you glad your idol will have some breathing room?"

Kaito scowled. "Obviously. I don't want to see him put away." Oh, how the magician really wanted to punch that pleased bastard in the face.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Hakuba said, voice coloured with soft amusement. Watson snickered as the detective turned to leave, the magician's shoulder receiving a friendly squeeze as they went past. "Before I forget: Inspector Nakamori would like to take a statement from you about Friday night. Any time this week will do." His smirk returned as he released Kaito's shoulder. "Don't have too much fun without me, Kuroba."

Kaito pulled a face at the pair's back. When the door to the stairs clicked shut behind them, he looked down at Ko. "He definitely knows."

"But he's pretending he doesn't." Ko's eyes were still fixed on the door. "Is he protecting us or using us as bait?"

The latter seemed more likely. However, Kaito did not believe Hakuba capable of feigning his emotions. Hiding them poorly or suppressing them, yes, but acting differently? It just didn't fit what Kaito had compiled of the detective's profile.

"Both, I think," he concluded.

 

A knock on the door interrupted Nakamori in the middle of writing up his report. Heads turned as the door opened and an officer leaned in to announce, "A Kuroba Kaito for Inspector Nakamori?"

Nakamori gestured for the man to let the teenager in. He sat back in his chair with a muffled groan, working out the kinks in his neck and shoulders as the boy and his daemon inched past their escort. Everyone else went back to parsing evidence from the last heist, but despite the lack of eyes on him, Kaito still looked nervous approaching Nakamori's desk.

"Thank you for coming, Kaito," the older man said. The teenager was in his uniform; he must have come directly from school. "Pull up a seat."

Kaito rolled a chair over and perched on the edge. His hands kept twitching, as if he wanted to fidget but was making an effort not to. Nakamori rummaged through his desk drawers for a blank form.

"How was school?" he asked in an attempt to relax the boy. He found the paper he needed and slapped it on his desk, scrawling in the basic details such as date, time, name and so on.

"Same as usual." Kaito shrugged, looking at his feet.

The inspector eyed him. "Did you and Aoko have another fight?" he asked gruffly.

The teenager gave a guilty start. "Yes," he admitted after a pause.

Nakamori let out an expansive sigh. He knew Aoko had been acting a little more bright and cheery than usual when he came home from work. He set down his pen for the time being and leaned forward, fingers interlaced loosely. "It's none of my business what you two argue about, but do you mind some advice from this old man?" He waited for Kaito's hesitant nod before he went on. "Apologise as soon as possible," he said bluntly. "Don't let the gap widen too far or you will never be able to bridge it."

The younger man's shoulders slumped and some of the tension in his body left him. "I'll keep that in mind, sir," Kaito said softly.

With a grunt, the inspector sat back and picked up his pen again. "Good. Now, if you could tell me what you saw on the night of March 8..."

Half an hour later, Kaito had gone home and Nakamori was adding the final, formal details to the boy's statement. Ganseki came behind his desk and climbed on top of the stool left there especially for her, rearing up to read the report. "So he claims he was outside when Kid was shot?" she asked.

"Mm." Nakamori signed off on the paper and slid it into a slowly fattening case file. His daemon uttered a mild snort. Before she could comment further, the door to the office opened again: this time to admit Shinichi Kudo.

The high school detective was wearing a thoughtful expression and his owl-daemon kept twisting her head to stare behind them. He approached the desk and halted in front of Nakamori without appearing to notice where he was. When the inspector cleared his throat, the boy gave a start.

"Oh, sorry, what was I..." His daemon's head swivelled back around to give Kudo an exasperated look. Kudo straightened minutely, gaze clearing. "Ah, right. I came here to inform you that I have a case which will take me out of the city for a few days. If there are any new developments, please contact me. You have my number?"

"Yes, yes." Nakamori waved him off. "Thank you for letting me know." Kudo smirked and sketched out a slight bow before turning on his heel and exiting the room. The older man shook his head and leaned back in his chair, groaning quietly as his body voiced another complaint from long hours of being seated. He knuckled his back and gazed at a small portrait on his desk: a simple, framed photograph of himself, Aoko, and the Kuroba family from before Touichi's death. The colours had faded somewhat in the ten years it had stood there but everyone remained distinguishable.

Grumbling under his breath, his eyes strayed to the pipe that he had smoked until Kid's reappearance. For a moment he was almost tempted - the eerie lack of evidence and the ever-frustrating puzzle that Kid presented was stress enough to warrant a quick puff. But Ganseki snuffled, and when their eyes met his resolve firmed.

"Damn thief," Nakamori muttered to himself, ignoring the pipe to reach for his keyboard and mouse so he could begin typing a fresh report.

. . .

Despite Kaito's best efforts, a week passed with nothing but frigid silence between himself and Aoko. The semester ended on a sour note even though he let off his customary confetti and streamers. All of the class were delighted except Aoko, who simply watched the coloured paper flutter by her face without expression.

The next day, Hakuba flew back to London just as he had informed Kaito, but not before sending him another text:

> _By the way, Aoko mentioned a clock tower that is to be relocated at the end of March. Apparently it has some significance to you both. Just thought I would mention it since you appear to not be on speaking terms once again._

  
"Nosy bastard," Kaito said of Hakuba in private. And Aoko was such a traitor, always passing on information about him to the detective without realising what she was doing. ("That's not her fault," Ko reminded him; Kaito wished his conscience wasn't always right so he could tell it to shut up.)

It hurt, hearing about it from the detective rather than Aoko. That was a memory special to them. It held no meaning to a foreign transfer student.

However, he couldn't stay away. The clock tower was exactly as he remembered it - only a decade older. Sat upon the scaffolding which obscured the bottom half of the structure, Kaito gazed over a light-speckled cityscape and toyed with the cord to a light projector he was installing. Ko lay upon a platform next to him, faint winds stirring the short hairs of her brown-grey coat.

"I always wonder whether dad would approve," Kaito murmured. "He kept his double life a secret from me and he told Jii never to let me know. That just means he'd be rolling in his grave right now, right, Ko?"

His daemon shrugged. "I doubt your father expected you to follow in his footsteps so exactly. He might never have wanted you to be a thief, but he would have wanted you to be happy."

"Am I happy, though?" Kaito wondered aloud. Ko had no answer to that.

The heist took place at night on the second-last day of March. The clock tower was supposed to be removed overnight but Kid's notice halted preparations for that. Kid fans gathered at the base of the structure, surrounded by a ring of police cars and officers. Not only was Division 2, Nakamori's division, present, a few officers from Division 1 were there as well in case there was a repeat of the Incan jewel shooting.

"But the diamonds in the hand are fake," Kaito muttered to himself as he slipped into uniform in the back of a police vehicle. "The shooter won't come." Shouldn't come, if all went well. He knew Aoko was somewhere out there protesting Kid's appearance. It would be hard to explain injuries away to her if they inexplicably matched those which Kid had sustained.

Ko was a Shiba for this heist: white powder and orange dye transformed her physical appearance; a tiny clip held her tail in the breed's distinctive curl. Kaito made sure he had all his possessions before fitting a police cap over his mask and wig.

"I am Officer Youichiro Sensui, resident of Ekoda, twenty-seven and unmarried," he recited under his breath. "Daemon: Yukiko. Excuse me while I borrow your name and face tonight."

The plan was to infiltrate police ranks as the officer and then sneak away once his automatic smoke screen activated and covered the clock face. Kaito had chosen this officer for their daemon's likeness to his. This way she could accompany him instead of wriggling through ventilation shafts.

He jogged around the crowd and was let through the police barrier without a second glance. He looked for the nearest squad leader and made straight for them clutching Kid's top hat with folded cape inside.

"Sir! I spotted a strange man while on patrol. He left this hat behind!" he reported.

"What?!" the man exclaimed. Several heads in the vicinity swivelled around at the shout. 'Sensui' showed them the hat and cape as they gathered around. All agreed the items belonged to the phantom thief. "Inspector, we have a man who has seen Kaitou Kid. Shall I let him through?" the squad leader said into his radio.

Even Kaito could hear the response. "Yes, yes! Send him in."

The man jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "All right, I have the all clear. Head inside." Kaito saluted and hurried into the bowels of the building, Ko trotting obediently behind. Her eyes performed constant surveillance of those around them in Kaito's stead.

The inspector in charge of this particular unit met them at the third storey. They held out their hand. "Your police ID, please." 'Sensui' dutifully relinquished it and stood to attention while the inspector compared photo to face. "Name, age, birthdate, daemon?" they asked.

"Youichiro Sensui, twenty-seven, born on the second of June!" he recited. "And my daemon, Yukiko, sir!" The inspector nodded.

"Excellent. Good work, officer!" they commended, holding out the ID. Just as Kaito reached to take it back, they abruptly moved it away. "Actually, just to be certain, I'd like to hear your ID number as well."

Kaito's brief surprise melted away into a smile. "Of course. It's 628605 524810!" he said.

The inspector was staring at him in shock. Kaito was aware that all nearby policemen's eyes were on him as well. He began to sweat. Had he got it wrong?

A finger pointed at him. "K-K-Kaitou Kid!" the inspector yelled.

Oops, that was their cue to run.

 

Eighteen minutes to the time in Kid's notice yet Kid had allegedly already been spotted. Frantic calls exchanged themselves over the radio. Officers were conducting an organised search of each room within the tower, and it was all being coordinated by Shinichi Kudo.

Nakamori bristled while staring out the window, watching the helicopters circle around. One of them belonged to Megure and Kudo. The boy had returned after wrapping up his murder case and, upon hearing of the heist, deemed it necessary to involve himself in Kid's apprehension because the thief might have clues that would lead to the arrest of his shooter. Normally Nakamori would have no complaints, but Megure was all but letting him run the entire operation. The nerve.

"Megure," he growled into his radio knowing the boy would also hear, "you realise this isn't even part of your jurisdiction?"

Crackled, sheepish laughter mixed with the sound of chopper blades slicing air. "I'm sorry, Nakamori, I--"

"Inspector." That boy. Nakamori clenched his fist. "Not to boast, but I may be your best chance at catching this thief. I'm certain I know where he disappeared to but his daemon is another matter. Please keep an eye out for a Shiba, or any doglike daemon that is unfamiliar."

Nakamori ground his teeth. Of course he would do all that. Who did this boy think he was? A rookie? He kept a close eye on the flurry of activity that had consumed the planning room, especially on the sparse security camera footage. No sign of either thief or daemon so far.

"Inspector Nakamori! Following that boy's advice, Nakamura from Squad D has sighted Kid dressed as a policeman in the ventilation ducts. He is currently in pursuit!" one of the men in the room shouted over.

"What?!" Damn, Kudo wasn't half bad.

The radio crackled into life. "This is Nakamura. I am in the ventilation duct. Kid appears to be exiting. What should I do?"

Nakamori took a deep breath and yelled into the radio. Complaints aside, he did love this part of their encounters. "Pursue him, of course! Don't let him escape!"

There was a slight pause before the man reported back. "Nakamura again! I am at the exit of the fourth floor vent and have lost sight of the target."

"Current position?" Nakamori asked, gesturing impatiently to one of his subordinates for a schematic of the tower.

"Um, let me see..." The radio crackled. "Fourth floor east passageway. Target has removed his disguise and is fleeing downstairs!"

 _'Divert the audience's attention elsewhere.'_ "All right! I want everyone downstairs as well. Don't let him escape!" Nakamori ordered, checking his watch. Five, four, three two, one...

 

The clock struck midnight and a sonorous chime reverberated through the structure. Smoke obscured the top of the clock tower. Within it, a heavy roll of canvas unfurled and a projection of the clock it concealed switched on. As the smoke cleared the hands appeared to fade away, leaving a numbered facade behind.

Kaito put on a gas mask while sleeping gas filled the engine room, slithering out of the ventilation as the last man and his daemon slumped to the floor. He opened the maintenance hatch so the gas could dissipate and he could remove his mask. Then he carefully crawled out into open air.

"Ko, I hope you didn't get cornered," he muttered past the carving tool between his teeth as his feet shuffled along a narrow ledge almost a hundred metres above the ground.

 

Ko had hidden herself amongst a stack of boxes. A dusty storeroom on the floor just below placed her at the right position to be near Kaito without being right there beside him. The only problem was that the police daemons were being much more thorough in their search than previous.

"Pretty sure they went through here."

"The door has a round knob. There's no way they could have gotten inside with paws."

"Might've been open before."

"Well it's not, now. So how are _we_ supposed to get in?"

"Stand guard until someone with opposable thumbs arrives, obviously."

Crap, Ko thought, shrinking further into the shadow of the boxes. If they came in, she would be found. They would use her as leverage to bring Kaito over and then slap handcuffs on him. If only she had wings, she thought with a wistful look at the small window in the room.

A loud, gruff voice interrupted her fretting. "What are you all doing? Ginzou wants every man and his daemon downstairs. Go, hurry up!"

Ko held her breath, unable to believe her luck. Claws clicked rapidly as the posse of daemons headed for the stairways. She listened intently, ears pricked and alert for the sound of breathing other than her own from outside. Like as not, Ganseki would be waiting outside to see if anyone or anything did come out of the storeroom. She heard nothing however, so she cautiously emerged from her hiding spot.

The door knob was a false fixture. It was one of the many backup strategies she and Kaito had planned when they found out Kudo would be assisting the police. Ko had stuck it on before entering the room. She pressed a button beside the door and stepped back as it swung open automatically. After peering out cautiously and reassuring herself that no-one was waiting to ambush her, she slunk out and wriggled into a vent which would lead her closer to where Kaito was.

 

Nakamori wasted no time pounding up the many flights of stairs to where the clock's mechanism was. Ganseki was hot on his heels, having rejoined him after sending most other personnel below. Neither of them could believe what they had just seen and both knew that wherever Kid was, it was _not_ downstairs.

And where Kid was, there was a chance his attempted killer was there too.

He threw open the door to the engine room. Several officers and their daemons were out cold and there was a lingering scent which Nakamori couldn't place. He crouched by a man who was showing signs of stirring and grabbed the lapels of their uniform.

"What happened?" he asked urgently, giving them a rough shake. They peered blearily at him.

"Came out of the vent," they slurred. A limp finger pointed at the open maintenance hatch, letting in cold air from outside. "Went that way..."

Nakamori let go of the man and hurried to the hatch. "If he went outside then he'll be easy to-- _Kid_!"

There was the white-clad thief. He was holding on to the hour hand of the clock while balanced precariously on the hands' fulcrum. Kid's face was shadowed but his monocle was a gleaming, reflective eye. Nakamori fumbled for his radio.

"This is Nakamori! I have found Kid! He is currently--!" The device was knocked violently from his hands and sent tumbling down. To the side of his face, a playing card sat embedded in the stone. The inspector found himself frozen while the thief spoke up.

"My apologies, Inspector, but I don't have time to play around tonight. I'd like you to solve a little code of mine." The tip of one white loafer tapped against the clock face.

"Code?" Nakamori repeated, shaking off his shock. He leaned a little further out trying to see what this 'code' was when the canvas shielding them suddenly blew against Kid.

For one heart-stopping moment he saw the phantom thief wobble. It was just a slight slip, but he instinctively reached out - as if he could stop the magician from falling if it came to that. He could feel Ganseki's teeth in his trouser leg, stopping him from toppling out.

Neither of them fell. Kid regained his balance and grip. Nakamori's sigh of relief was drowned out by the whirr of a helicopter that was far too close for comfort.

 _What is that pilot doing?_ he thought angrily before the faint crack of gunshots interrupted him. The inspector went pale. "What the devil-- who's firing?!"

The helicopter's searchlight was muted by fabric. It hovered steadily in place, buffeting the sheet. Nakamori saw Kid pressing himself to the hour hand and another stab of fear clutched his heart. "Kid! Get down from there before you get hurt!" he bellowed.

The thief smiled at him. It was strained at the edges, tight. Nakamori's knuckles whitened on the sides of the hatch as the magician shook his head and cocked his card gun once more.

"Until we meet again, Inspector Nakamori!" Kid proclaimed, before tipping his head up. He aimed carefully and fired at the ties holding the canvas.

The helicopter gunman did the same, except lower. Their bullet knocked free the weighted rod which had been holding the sheet steady. It spiralled to the ground, impacting against the scaffolding beneath with a louder clang than the radio had. Free of its restraints, the fabric billowed outwards followed by clouds of smoke which Nakamori hadn't even seen Kid activate.

While the smoke was dissipated by helicopter blades, he pulled back into the engine room and began shouting for a spare radio and some rope. He grabbed the former off a junior officer when it arrived, looped the latter securely around his midriff, and furiously contacted Megure.

"Megure! Tell me that was you shooting just then!" he yelled.

"Ah, no, that wasn't me..."

The inspector choked on an indecipherable noise of disbelief and rage. "Then you mean--?!"

"I apologise, Inspector," Kudo interceded. "I thought it was the fastest way to reveal him."

Nakamori took several deep breaths. Not the culprit from three weeks ago, thank goodness. He composed himself enough to growl, "What would you have done if you'd hit him? Or worse, his daemon?" He began to climb carefully out of the hatch to inspect the code left behind by Kid.

"Hitting his daemon was statistically unlikely. I mentioned before that your men were to look for a doglike daemon. It is unlikely he could coerce another man's daemon to cooperate with him, so the dog that your officers saw must have been his own, either in its original form or disguised. Or his assistant's, assuming he has one, but I have no reason to believe there was an assistant present tonight. A dog would not have been able to balance on the clock hands together with him, correct?"

"In any event," Nakamori said bitingly, not wanting to admit the kid had a point, "I don't want you using a gun again, understood? I doubt you even have a licence for one."

"Yes, sir. More importantly, did Kid say or leave anything behind?"

Nakamori grunted as he examined the scratches. "Some sort of code. There are twelve letters in katakana: starting from the one o'clock position it reads 'ko na ke no ne na ha wa te sa ni o'."

He could hear Megure repeating the syllables. Presumably copying the message down. "Hmm, I have absolutely no idea what this means... Are you sure this is what's written?"

"Yes," he ground out, settling on to the minute hand as it passed the quarter hour. It was not as complicated as the riddles which Kaitou 1412 had once left behind for him. He had a feeling it was a substitution cipher but he wanted to look at it in the safety of the Metropolitan Police Department offices, not out here.

"Well, as long as the investigation into this code is ongoing, the relocation will have to be postponed," Megure said.

Nakamori snorted. "I don't need you to tell me that." Unable to find anything more, he began to carefully make his way back to the hatch.

"At least he failed to steal the clock or its hands. That's good, right?"

He growled. "He still damaged public property. Now he's not just a thief, he's also a vandal!"

Megure's laughter went a little way towards soothing his wounded pride at another failure, but mostly he felt relief that the thief had escaped unharmed. Another failure meant another night he could chase the mysterious, phantom magician who danced just out of his reach. Another chance to catch the bastards who would shoot a harmless dove out of the sky.

. . .

After the sheet had fallen and the smoke had cleared, the audience which had gathered to see Kid's latest miracle began to disperse. Aoko and Keiko, more to the back, had managed to avoid being injured by the falling canvas but they had lost each other in the chaos. From what she could see, those hurt suffered only bruises and scrapes from tripping over themselves or other people. The metal rod, though it had made a loud racket, had mercifully avoided hitting anyone on its way down.

 _Why, Kid?_ Aoko wondered to herself as she gazed at the clock above. She could just make out her dad, being helped back inside by his co-workers. _Why target something and then leave it behind?_

There was nothing valuable about the clock. There was no reason for the thief to want it, unlike the precious works of art or statues or jewels which Kid always returned regardless of their value. Aoko couldn't understand why Kid would target this structure and leave empty-handed.

Without warning, a blue rose popped into existence before her nose. She followed the arm which held it and found the rueful face of her childhood friend, Kaito.

"My name's Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you," he said, echoing the words he had said to her when they first met as children here at this very tower.

She stared at him for a good, long minute, watching as his expression morphed slowly from a forced grin to an unsure smile. It was only when he started looking worried that she sniffed disdainfully and took the rose from his hand.

"Aoko knew you were the one who left that rose in her room," she muttered over the flower. She sent him a glare. "I still haven't forgiven you."

Kaito's expression cleared briefly only to fall again. "I'm sorry," he said contritely. By his side, Ko's head drooped. "I can't tell you what happened, but... One day. When I've found-- when I know..." His eyes pleaded with her. "I'll tell you someday. Just not now."

Aoko averted her eyes. _'Is it because you're Kaitou Kid?'_ she wanted to ask, but her tongue wouldn't form the question.

On that day several months ago, when Kozare had changed from crow to that weird fox, Aoko had noticed: despite swearing to prove himself better than Kid, Kaito suddenly became the thief's self-proclaimed number one fan. He derided her father's efforts, became busy on the nights that her father was out chasing Kid, and brushed off all her questions about how he was feeling with a generic, "I'm fine!"

If she hadn't had Ko to use as a reference, she might never have noticed that Kaito had grown more distant over the past months. That increasing feeling that she had been left out of something, the insults which had grown sharper ever since Kaitou Kid reappeared - it coincided with the start of Kaito's strange behaviour and the shift of his daemon.

"Do you remember when Aoko asked you to come to Tropical Land with her?" she said instead.

Because she was looking for it, she noticed how Ko's ears pricked alertly. Kaito also tensed. "Yeah?"

She rolled the rose stem between her fingertips. "Aoko's dad thought you were Kaitou Kid, so Aoko asked you on a date the same day as Kid's heist." She peeked at him, a smile she didn't wholly feel crossing her lips. "Of course, Kaito wasn't Kaitou Kid because Kaito was with Aoko in the cinema. But it's funny." She gestured vaguely at him with the rose, unable to look directly at her friend. "After the movie, you and Kozare looked really tired. Just like now."

Aoko was watching Ko more than Kaito. She saw the daemon go rigid, eyes darting back and forth between her human and Aoko. Kaito himself appeared utterly relaxed save for the blank face that Aoko recognised as his 'poker face'. He was hiding something again. Her heart fell.

"It's okay," she said quietly. Kinko placed a paw on her foot, offering wordless comfort. "Aoko can wait for you to tell her. But... But I want you to stop hiding what you feel." Warm liquid gathered in front of her eyes. She blinked and found tears falling on to the snout of her daemon. Dashing them aside in embarrassment, she rounded on him and grabbed his hand. "I just want to know that you're... you're not hurt, or sad, or lonely, because I... I--"

Kaito's face was turning a deathly pale shade and twitching oddly, like he was in pain and trying not to show it.

"Kaito?" she asked uncertainly. Her eyes fell upon the hand she was grasping. The arm bent at an odd angle at the elbow. She let go and Kaito immediately snatched it back with a hiss, cradling the limb.

"Kaito?" she repeated with more alarm. Then as the teenage boy sank to his knees, shaking, she cried out in fright.

"Kaito!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daemons mentioned:  
> Shinichi Kudo - Owl (Blakiston's fish owl), 'Hakken' 白見  
> Juuzou Megure - Dog (Pit bull), 'Nanami' 七珠  
> Youichiro Sensui - Dog (Shiba), 'Yukiko' 雪子
> 
> (For those who were curious, this is a list of advice Kaito and Kozare have compiled for themselves:
> 
> 1/ Do not stray too far from your daemon.  
> 2/ Keep an eye on your surroundings, even outside of the costume.  
> 3/ Don't underestimate Inspector Nakamori.  
> 4/ Never go snorkelling with strange men.  
> 5/ Scooters down a building are fun but a bad idea.  
> 6/ Avoid Akako.  
> 7/ No, really, avoid her like the plague.  
> 8/ Keep an eye on fake notices.  
> 9/ If you can't beat a hustler, don't play their game.  
> 10/ Don't leave escape routes obvious.  
> 11/ Hakuba is a prat.  
> 12/ Wear bullet-proof vest to heists.  
> 13/ Don't schedule consecutive heists in one week.
> 
> Ko did not like riding that scooter down the building. Kaito thinks she's a spoilsport.
> 
> On an unrelated note, I have been listening to Saguru's/Aoko's duets with Kaito from Magic Kaito 1412 and they're _gorgeous_.)


	7. Shots in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Saguru discovers that there may be more to the shooting than meets the eye. Something worth silencing a killer over.

Her breaths came as soft pants, quick and fleeting like the cherry blossoms which began their yearly pilgrimage at the south of Japan and spread northwards. Carrying only a handgun, she and her dove fled down a narrow gap between houses and emerged on the crest of an artificial river bank.

This was no good. Too open. Too vulnerable.

A bullet spat into the grass at her feet, prompting her to flee upriver. It seemed a trail of them dogged her flashing feet until she tried to seek the cover of housing again. One bullet cracked into the concrete in front of her, so loud that it was a wonder the people inside the nearby units weren't woken by the noise. She changed course and almost tripped down the sloping bank, daemon flapping madly to keep up.

At the bottom, she spun and faced her pursuer, gripping the gun in both hands. One final bullet shot the firearm from her hands and sent it spiralling into the water.

"Running from me just delays your death." A man dressed in deep grey emerged from the shadows, gun barrel glinting beneath a fat moon. Despite the hour, he wore a fedora that obscured his eyes and masked his more defining features. "You failed twice. You are unnecessary."

The gun flashed once more. Her daemon screamed as it disintegrated into amber dust motes. The woman's body twisted and crashed into the grass, blood seeping from her breast into the soil.

The man grunted and nudged the corpse with a foot. Behind him, another man in grey emerged.

"Strip her of that," the gunman ordered them, indicating the former assassin's black combat gear. "Then throw her body in the river. We'll let the sea swallow her."

"Yes, sir."

The shooter hid his gun in the folds of his trench coat and stepped back. Pulling a box of cigarettes from his pocket, he tapped one out, lit it, and took a deep drag. The burnt orange tip was shortly enveloped in a cloud of foul smoke.

Allotting the task to this foreigner had been a mistake. Granted, his failure was why the organisation had brought in an outside sniper in the first place, but she had botched her first attempt and been too lenient in the second. Kaitou Kid had clearly not taken their first warning shot to heart since he had gone and held another heist: a blatant, public mockery of their efforts.

He heard a heavy splash. Turning, he saw his subordinate's arms full with the woman's gear; her body was a pale, half-submerged lump floating down the river. He nodded in approval.

"Let's beat it. The boss is waiting," he said with a jerk of his head.

The other man followed him back up the slope and the two merged into the inky blackness - like another pair of shadows.

. . .

The stockbroker had pled 'not guilty'.

Saguru and Kenda emerged from the courtroom with shared expressions of dark thunder. Such a plea meant court appearances. Highly unnecessary appearances. Given Saguru's public involvement in the case, he would definitely be called upon as one of the witnesses. It was ridiculous. A farce. There was enough evidence - solid, irrefutable evidence - to get the man convicted of his crime. Yet everyone, including his own lawyer, had been surprised by the plea.

"What manner of inconceivable, moronic, nonsensical--" the blonde began angrily, restraining himself from displaying proper anger by clenching his fists tightly. He didn't even complain when Kenda flexed her talons and pricked his shoulder through the suit he was wearing. Anything to take his mind off that imbecile.

Detective Inspector Fielding caught up with Saguru in the lobby, jogging up to the teenager and catching his attention with a touch on the shoulder. "Saguru, when were you leaving for Japan? The prosecution might need to call you up but I know you've got school, so if it's inconvenient..."

Saguru shook his head. "It's fine," he said with a long-suffering sigh. "I'll ask for a leave of absence if it comes to that. Although, I may miss an official summons since I am still considered to be living at my mother's house and my mother will be out of the country from April to late June."

"I'll email if we need you," Fielding assured him. "And I have your other number if anything urgent comes up."

They parted ways. To avoid the media scrum, he slipped out a back entrance used only by cleaning staff and garbage collectors. Yet, there was one woman waiting for him outside who was wise to his attempt to slip by her.

"No," he said immediately, not caring if he was being rude.

Miller's teeth snapped shut on the words she had initially been about to say. "Tough day?" she instead asked.

"In a manner of speaking." Saguru strode stiff-backed, walking quickly away from the Old Bailey. She shadowed his steps. "I don't suppose asking for some privacy would make you leave?"

"If you really want privacy, yes." Saguru shot a wide-eyed look at her. She smiled. "What? I can be considerate."

His expression turned sceptical. "Your behaviour over the past years has indicated otherwise." Then he narrowed his eyes. "Where is Gestalt?"

Her eyes drifted to his coat before she could stop them. Saguru made a noise at the back of his throat. Halting on the street, he lifted his arm and glared at one of his pockets. "Out," he ordered.

The daemon dithered. He emerged once Saguru shook his blazer. Gestalt wriggled out, dodged the teenager's hands, and flew straight to his other half. It was hard to tell, but he did not seem the least bit apologetic and neither did Miller.

"Come on," she wheedled, "I'll shout you coffee. Or tea, whichever. No questions, no interrogation. I promise!"

Saguru was unconvinced. He extended his hand. "Your word?"

She didn't even hesitate. She grasped his hand and squeaked when his grip tightened and she was tugged a step forward, putting their faces uncomfortably close.

The teenager held that position for a few seconds then released her. Miller stepped back quickly, eyes wide and a hand to her breast.

"What...?" she asked breathily. Saguru merely smirked and continued onwards. Miller trailed behind after a beat. It wasn't until she put her hand into her coat pocket that she realised she was missing her voice recorder. Frantic, she patted down her clothes. "Oh no, where did I--?"

Saguru turned back, her device in his hand. He wiggled it. "I'll be holding on to this until we're done," he said dryly, placing it back into his own pocket and facing forward again. He missed seeing the odd look which passed through the journalist's expression before she hurried after him.

"You've been practising without telling me?" Kenda groused into his ear as they walked.

"If I can't fool you then how will I understand him?" he replied in muted tones, mindful of the journalist's presence.

The four of them stepped into a cafe - a small place which saw most of its patronage from the attorneys and prosecutors of the nearby courthouse as well as the occasional judge. Saguru chose a table where he could sit with his back to the wall and keep an eye on the rest of the establishment.

Surprisingly, Miller stayed true to her promise and didn't bring up the stockbroker's case. Instead she talked his ear off about her job and complained about pressure from her boss to find sensationalistic stories that would grab public eye. Saguru uttered sounds of acknowledgement at appropriate times, giving the barest impression that he was listening while not actually doing so. He was still chewing over the case and trying to understand why the man would plead 'not guilty' with such overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Against the advice from his lawyer, as well.

"--said 1412 was probably a front for a yakuza group looking to make a name--"

Saguru gave a start. "1412?" he repeated.

Miller nodded, not seeming to notice that Saguru's attention had been elsewhere for the majority of her chattering. "That's what Susan thinks anyway," she waved off airily. "I mean, if you think about it, it could be possible. There's no way that 1412 pulls off his thefts on his own, right? They're just too perfect, too organised. 1412 went uncaught for ten whole years before vanishing off the face of the earth! Then he reappears eight years later and it's like he's never been gone!" She leaned forward, eyes glowing. "So here's my theory: Phantom Thief 1412 is created as a front by a group of yakuza. They steal works of art and precious jewels, replace them with well-made forgeries, and sell the real item on the black market. Only, eight years ago something happened to drive them underground. Maybe there was a turf war, or their leading man died and they had to train another. But now they're back and at it again!"

She sat back triumphantly, taking a sip of her chai latte. "So? What do you think?"

Saguru and Kenda both stared at her. And then as one, they began snickering.

"Hey!" Miller exclaimed. "It wasn't that bad, was it?"

"Journalism suits you better than detective work, Miss Miller," Saguru said once he fought down his humour. He sampled his milk tea, smiling.

"I'm wrong, then." Miller's eyes sharpened over her glass. "So who do you think he is? You came face to face with him several times. Is he even male?"

Saguru shrugged, setting his cup in its saucer. "1412 is a master of disguise. His preferred vocal range indicates a strong possibility of him being male, yes, but that could easily be a ruse."

"That can't be all!" she complained. "Didn't you notice anything else?"

He shook his head. "Nothing that would assist the local police in apprehending him."

_I know he has a weakness for chocolate. I know that he brings a spare newspaper in case Aoko rips the current day's apart and that he buys fresh roses every day to give to others. I know that he keeps his own doves and brings a different one to school each day, hidden up his sleeve. I know he causes mayhem out of boredom rather than design. And I know that, despite his criminal alter ego's penchant for chaos, he has yet to let anyone come to serious harm._

Saguru's phone chirped. The detective dug it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. Surprise flashed across his face. He opened the text message.

Surprise turned to shock then to anger. He stood and his chair screeched along the floor. Kenda's claws were daggers pinching his shoulder. "My apologies, Ms Miller, but I have a call to make," he told the woman. He tossed the voice recorder back to her and hurried out of the cafe, leaving his half-finished tea and her confused protests behind.

Once outside he rapidly dialled the text sender then held the phone to his ear, waiting impatiently for the call to go through. As soon as he heard the click from the other end, he spoke over the recipient.

"Is he safe?" he asked sharply in Japanese.

"Yes... It's just a broken arm." He could hear a sniffle. "He keeps saying he fell but he won't tell me where or how."

Saguru allowed himself to relax marginally. "I'm due to fly back to Tokyo tonight. I should be in Japan on Sunday evening, local time." The thief could expect words from him for being so 'clumsy'.

She hiccupped. "Aoko's sorry for bothering you, Hakuba-kun..."

"Not at all," he reassured, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "He is an important friend of yours and you are understandably worried about him."

She made a vague sound that could have been agreement. "Have, have you and Kaito stopped fighting now?" she asked hesitantly.

Saguru's pause lasted all of 1.2 seconds. "I believe we may have managed to set aside our differences. At least for the time being," he said. Aoko made a noise that sounded like a laugh.

"Stupid boys." He could imagine her shaking her head at them.

"And you?" he asked gently. "Have you forgiven him yet?"

Silence. Saguru waited patiently for her response, listening to the broken-up sound of her breathing.

"Can I talk to you when you get here?" she asked instead.

The detective was surprised but answered without hesitation. "Of course."

"Thank you," came her quiet response.

The call ended; Saguru spared a moment to mentally tally the cost of his international call (and wince at the amount) before he pocketed his phone. Kenda's talons had left unsightly holes in one of his better suits again but he waved off her apology with a resigned air, far too used to it happening by now.

"'Next month,' I said," he grumbled, striking out for the cab stand. "I did not expect him to hold a heist to save a clock tower."

Kenda cackled as he flagged down one of the black vehicles. Well, that was what one got for giving a thief ideas.

Neither noticed a tiny red and black beetle peeling off the back of Saguru's blazer.

. . .

> March 31, 21:12  
>  _He wouldn't say anything. Got a call from someone about a friend and ran off._
> 
> 21:12  
>  _Where is he now?_
> 
> 21:13  
>  _On his way to Japan. JL648. He'll probably return to London for the Harold Smith case._
> 
> 21:14  
>  _Inform us as soon as he returns._  
> 

  


. . .

Baaya picked him up from the airport and took him directly to the hospital in Ekoda. Their conversation was brief and to the point, Saguru falling silent as soon as his governess slid into the stream of taxis and shuttle buses leaving the airport. His pocket watch told him the time was 5:13:31pm on March 31, Japan Standard Time (his thoughts were too occupied to provide a decisecond count), when they finally joined the main road. It was congested, and irritation at their slow progress showed in the repetitive tapping of his foot. Baaya ignored the tic and patiently weaved through the traffic.

Fifty-nine minutes and twelve seconds later she drew up at the hospital entrance.

"I will find somewhere to wait for you, Young Master Saguru," she told him. He nodded curtly and was through the main doors before she could say anything further.

The receptionist was still on duty despite the hospital having closed for visitors fourteen minutes and twenty-three seconds ago.

"I'm very sorry, visiting hours are over," she began, rising up from her seat to meet him. Her hedgehog-daemon twitched its nose at Kenda.

Taking a deep breath, he plastered on a smile that he had been rehearsing every day for the past two weeks in front of a mirror at his mother's house.

"I know, and I do apologise," Saguru said, cheeks straining to hold the 'natural' smile. "It's just that I have a friend who got into a spot of trouble the other day and was interred here. I didn't hear about it until just now. My flight's in a few hours and I would really love to see him before I leave the country. I don't know when I'll be back."

The woman's conviction wavered. Saguru let his smile gentle. "Of course, I will not bother you further if you insist I leave. But I promise you my visit won't take long."

"Well, alright," she relented, taking a seat. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard. "What is your friend's name?"

Kuroba was in the short-term patients ward. The receptionist told him the floor and room number and reminded him to be quiet. Saguru thanked her and strode to the elevator. Kenda waited until the doors slid closed before she swivelled her head towards him.

"Not a word," Saguru growled, red-faced. She faced forward again and kept her beak shut but there was an air of humour about her as she preened.

The doors opened and Saguru stepped out. Kuroba's ward was a short walk to the left down the corridor and through a doorway. The curtains were drawn around some beds; others were empty. Saguru zeroed in on a youth with wild dark hair and a coyote stretched across their belly. He kept his voice low.

"Kuroba?"

The magician was awake. His right arm was in a plaster cast that was - much to Saguru's quiet amusement - the exact same shade of blue as the headband of Kid's top hat. Kuroba's head turned at the sound of his name and his expression soured.

"Let me guess: Aoko told you," Kuroba said grumpily, pushing himself up as the detective approached. Kozare shuffled off him with a soft complaint.

"She did." Saguru halted by the other teenager's bedside. Ignoring the stare-off between their daemons, he gestured at the cast. "She told me you acquired that through a fall a few nights ago. During Kid's last heist."

Kuroba made a rude sound but didn't deny it. "It was an accident. I tripped and landed on my arm."

"You tripped," Saguru repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Tripped and somehow landed with enough force to shatter both the radius and the ulna?"

The other boy's face grew surly. "Yeah," he said defensively. "I did."

Saguru stifled his scepticism. There were other patients in the ward and Kuroba obviously was not comfortable speaking of what had truly happened. He chose his next words carefully. "So you fell," he repeated again, closely watching the magician's face and hoping, _trying_ , to convey to his obstinate classmate that he was not asking in an official capacity. "Whereabouts?"

He could see the subtle conflict playing out over Kuroba's face before a careful mask hid it from view. Blue eyes skittered aside then wrenched back to Saguru's ( _wants to lie_ ). "Near the yakitori store, two blocks down from the station."

"Do you have the street name?" Saguru asked, taking a pocket notebook out of his coat.

Kuroba gave it to him with a large amount of reluctance. Saguru nodded to himself as he put the notebook away, attracting a suspicious look from the magician. "Injury aside, Kuroba," he continued, smiling for the first time since his arrival, "how was the heist?"

Saguru received a recount of the night's happenings embellished with the other teenager's usual flair and exaggeration, carefully edited to suit a boy who had either watched it all unfold on TV or from the ground. It was, at best, an awkward conversation filled with omissions and outright lies, but the detective knew better than to call them out when they would be summarily denied. He ended up taking a seat on the edge of the bed as they talked.

"A large sheet and a projector? Really?"

" _You_ try taking away two iron hands without a crane in less than five seconds."

The fact that Kuroba was a magician worked in his favour. He could talk about the method behind Kid's tricks, criticise or praise them without it sounding abnormal. Saguru almost admired the sheer cheek of it.

"You think he fell with the sheet?"

"Well, it'd have been hard to use a hang-glider with the helicopter as close as it was." The fingers of Kuroba's left hand drummed an idle beat on his lap. His gaze wasn't quite meeting Saguru's.

Suddenly his 'fall' took on a more horrifying context. Saguru pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes. "Please don't tell me..." Kuroba opened his mouth and the detective decided he didn't want to hear the lie that had been prepared. "No, nevermind. Forget I said anything."

While Kuroba snickered, Saguru realised something else. "Kuroba, were you taken to the hospital directly after the heist?"

"Yep." The magician scratched his daemon's ears. "Aoko's dad drove me."

Saguru felt a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. "So you didn't have time to change."

Kuroba frowned and opened his mouth. 'Of course not,' Saguru could imagine him thinking. 'What are you, stupid?'

He got to watch the exact moment the other meaning of his query dawned on the magician. First he looked angry, then scared, then finally nauseous. Kenda crouched on Saguru's shoulder, yellow eyes gleaming. Kozare backed up against her human partner, hackles raised and ears laid back fearfully.

"Kenda?" Saguru murmured. She dove from his shoulder just in time to meet Kozare's snap.

6:49:56pm on Sunday night, Saguru and Kenda were politely - _pointedly_ \- escorted from the hospital. Their friend would be discharged tomorrow morning, they were told, but the staff heartily discouraged any form of roughhousing until the cast came off his arm. The pair made their apologies to the nurses before taking their leave, sharing a quiet chuckle once out of earshot. While they hadn't found any incriminating evidence, Saguru had learned one thing.

Kuroba was extremely ticklish.

 

That night saw Saguru sleeping restlessly. Napping during the flight had left him awake to greet Kuroba but it meant an upset to his internal body clock. With no time to adjust to the new time zone before school the next morning, it was a haggard teenager who dragged himself out of bed at the shrill of his seven o'clock alarm.

After fixing him a light breakfast and a refreshing cup of tea, his governess drove him to the school. Somehow he avoided nodding off during the trip and let himself off outside the gates of Ekoda High.

Some fifteen minutes later he was outside the door to his new classroom. Letting out a long, slow breath, he straightened his posture and slid the door aside. Somehow he, Kuroba, and Aoko had been placed in the same class again. Was that luck or not-so-divine intervention?

Whatever or whoever was responsible, the first thing fate transpired to throw at him was the sight of that girl - what had been her name, again? - the beautiful one with long, flowing black hair and slanted eyes that seemed to caress you just by looking. She was half-sitting on her desk, already being mooned over by the boys who had arrived earlier. Saguru halted on the threshold, captivated and entranced by the elegance and poise with which she held herself. She wasn't looking his way and he wished that she would. Ever since the first time he had noticed her, the detective had found himself considering the idea of approaching her. But the opportunity had never arisen. Kuroba always seemed to somehow distract him before he could act on his impulses.

"Don't just stand there, you giant. Move!"

Saguru blinked. Kenda shook herself, a little slower to come out of the daze. The detective was nudged aside by Kuroba, whose right arm was cradled in a sling. It may have just been Saguru's imagination, but he thought the magician's smile today looked more relaxed. The blond absently fingered the small box he had found in yesterday's coat earlier.

"Spacing out already, Hakuba?" the teenager teased him. He returned a couple of their new classmates' waves and greetings before focusing on Saguru. "You weren't staying up all night thinking about me, were you? Worried I'd have a heart attack in the night?"

Saguru spluttered. "What-- no! Rather-- that is to say, I was obviously concerned for your well-being, but I was not...!" He trailed off at Kuroba's laugh.

"I was kidding, idiot. Geez." The magician smacked his shoulder lightly and bounced off towards the pretty girl and her would-be suitors. "Akako!" he sang. "Where've you been all this time?"

Movement by his feet. Saguru glanced down and saw Kozare trailing Kuroba at a more sedate, albeit still bouncy pace. The daemon flicked an ear and winked at him without breaking her stride.

Non-plussed, he traded a confused stare with Kenda. What had happened to make Kuroba so lively this morning? The flirtatious attitude put Saguru off-balance.

"He wouldn't happen to have overdosed on painkillers, would he?" he murmured just in time for Aoko, entering after Kuroba, to hear.

She shook her head. "He was like that when me and dad went to pick him up." The girl looked worryingly tired. There were smudges beneath her eyes and the whites were tinged with pink. Crying and a sleepless night. "Did you say something to him last night, Hakuba-kun?"

Saguru couldn't think of anything they had discussed during his visit that would explain the cheerful mood. "No."

Explanations would have to wait. Kuroba was already ingratiating himself into the class' good graces with some sleight of hand magic. The detective mostly managed to deduce how he was pulling them off by watching closely, but other tricks baffled him. For example: how on earth had Kuroba managed to split one dove into two?

As soon as their homeroom teacher walked in Kuroba hid his doves and took his customary seat by the window. Aoko was beside him, of course. Saguru was, this time, in the row behind and to Kuroba's right - directly behind Aoko in other words. He would have made some comment about the other teenager not wanting him at his back yet trusting him with Aoko's, but for once it appeared that Kuroba was inclined to behave today. Their teacher shot the magician a wary look as they stood, bowed, retook their seats, and called the roll quickly.

Their first two periods passed uneventfully. At recess the trio found themselves being joined by a surprise fourth member: Akako Koizumi, who was still the occasional subject of Saguru's appraising eye.

He tore his gaze away to glance at Aoko, wondering whether she was worried that Koizumi might be competing with her for Kuroba's attention. He had noticed an unusual obsession for Kuroba in the beautiful woman. However, Aoko seemed happy enough to chat with Koizumi, and Kuroba did not treat Koizumi any differently to how he treated the other girls in their class. Was he oblivious or immune to the young woman's charms?

"But that sure was a nasty cold going around, huh?" one of the other three was saying. Saguru wrenched his mind back to the present. "Akako got laid out in bed for a whole two weeks," Kuroba continued, wrinkling his nose. Posture too still to be casual, face too composed to be concern: lie. Why was that a lie?

"You were sick?" Aoko asked, turning to the other girl in surprise. Body movement stiff, brow creased: still trying to ignore Kuroba while also worrying over his physical condition.

"It was nothing," Koizumi dismissed with a graceful wave of her hand. Only she could make a two-week cold sound like a trifling infection. She batted her eyelashes at Kuroba. "Though I hear someone was concerned for me and came to visit. I never did ask my butler for their name."

Kuroba had...? Saguru raised an eyebrow at the magician. He was ignored. While Koizumi smirked at Kuroba, the detective made to take a bite of his pear. He froze mid-bite.

Wait. Koizumi had taken leave from classes directly after the Kid heist at the Incan exhibition. He hadn't noticed because his thoughts then had been occupied wholly on Kid's safety, and that very day had been Kuroba and Koizumi's first interaction that he had seen.

The presence of two thieves had been hastily swept under the carpet by Inspector Nakamori, all Kaitou Kid Task Force members forbidden to speak of the matter to those not in the investigation. The police department's official stance was that Kid had been shot by an unknown third party, who was still being searched for. Nakamori hadn't said why and Saguru hadn't asked.

While Saguru personally knew it had been Kaito up on the balcony, he had no idea who the one riding the broom had been. Kid's 'mysterious assistant', he had thought, but the height had been wrong and the scream had been at the right pitch to belong to a woman.

It did not explain the broom but it did explain _something_.

A snap brought him out of his reverie. Kuroba had leaned out of his seat and snapped his fingers in Saguru's face. The blond stared as the teenager sat back down, still struggling to process his newfound revelation. "You're spacing out again," Kuroba told him. Unlike before, he looked a little worried now. "Are you okay?"

"Just fine," Saguru responded absently. Then he cleared his throat and put down his unbitten pear. "Actually, could I have a quick word with you outside?"

Kenda came down from the classroom rafters to take her customary place on his shoulder. Kozare was, as always, at her human's heels. Saguru shut the classroom door behind Kuroba and led the other teenager over to the windows overlooking the schoolyard. A glance up and down the corridor showed the nearest people and their daemons to be out of earshot for a quietly-held conversation.

"Was Koizumi, perhaps..." Saguru paused, wondering how to phrase it. "Involved?"

Kuroba sobered. He leaned against the window, throwing his own quick looks around. Assured of their privacy, he held Saguru's gaze without saying a word. Neither denial nor confirmation, but Saguru didn't need words to read a person.

"I see," he sighed. Kuroba had not flinched when he squeezed the magician's shoulder at school after the heist. Kuroba's silence confirmed Koizumi as the one who had been on the broom.

"She is quite resilient. I imagine you didn't plan for her to come that night, otherwise you would not have run away," Saguru continued, amused at the glare forming on Kuroba's face.

"She's annoying," Kuroba muttered, throwing a wary glance back at their classroom door as if expecting her to appear suddenly.

"Oh? I think she's trying to help in her own way." She had come intending to provide Kuroba with an alibi. Even if that had ultimately backfired, it was a strong indicator of her intentions. "I will admit I have only known her for a week or so. My deductions are rarely wrong, however."

Kuroba looked at him on the sly. "'Rarely'," he drawled. Saguru smirked.

"If you need a shoulder to lean on or an ear to listen, I am always available," he reminded him.

"I think you mean 'confess' there." Kuroba rolled his eyes but began to saunter back to the classroom. The bell almost cut in over his reply.

 _I've kept your secret in confidence for this long already_ , Saguru thought, reaching out to stop his classmate. "Wait, you've been in an unusually good mood today. Why?"

Both boy and daemon gave him identical smug looks. "You're a detective. Deduce the answer."

 _Why do people always think_ , Saguru thought irritably as they re-entered the classroom, _that detectives can deduce an answer out of nothing?_

But as it turned out, he didn't need to deduce anything. Inspector Nakamori called him from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department after school, yelling something about diamonds, a lot of diamonds, a bouquet of roses, and 'that damn Kid'. The ranting had gone on for nearly five minutes, Saguru cautiously hanging up at four minutes and fifty-one seconds when it was clear that Nakamori had forgotten that he was on the phone to him. He had shot a suspicious look at Kuroba's back as the magician left the school building with Aoko, but neither he nor Kozare gave him a backwards glance.

Entering the police department was like entering a chicken coop that a fox had just been through. There were pieces of paper with Kaitou Kid doodles on the notice boards, printouts taped over doorways and to the sides of desks, and grinning Kid dolls sitting on top of cubicle partitions for each member of the task force. The doodles and printouts were still being taken down but Saguru saw that the recycling bins were already filled to the brim with paper.

Approaching Nakamori's office, he discovered that it _was_ possible for the human larynx to achieve a volume that could put a microphone and speaker to shame. There was a crush of uniforms gathered outside, all eyes peering intently at the crack in the doorway. Within, Inspector Nakamori's expletive-laden bellow was at its loudest.

"What are you all doing?" he asked. Those around him startled and guiltily hid slips of paper. Saguru's and Kenda's gaze pinned that of the nearest officer's and they gulped.

"Taking bets on the inspector's rant," they said weakly. "Yamada thinks it'll go over thirty minutes. Takara and Oida are competing over how many times he'll say 'Kid'. And Uemoto believes that the roses and fake diamonds are a romantic gesture."

Saguru's eyebrows lifted. "Are they?"

The officer shrugged. "They weren't red and there was a card with them. It's some sort of riddle though."

Letting out a thoughtful hum, the teenage detective pushed open the door. He could feel eyes on his back as he advanced fearlessly through the scattered gems. A few braver officers had remained in the office, attempting to put the room and their work desks back into some semblance of order. Nakamori stood fuming over twenty-one orange roses ( _fascination, passion, commitment_ ) on his desk, face pinched red with indignation.

"Hakuba!" the man thundered. A white card bearing Kid's doodle was slapped down on the table. Saguru blinked at it. "Tell me this isn't what I think it is!"

He picked up the card and read silently:

> _Star light, star bright, the first star I saw last night,  
>  I wish I may, I wish I might,  
> Have that jewel to steal tonight._

  
There was a small heart after the final line. The word for 'star' was written in katakana, in contrast to the rest of the rhyme that was in hiragana or kanji. The meaning was not difficult for him to decipher.

Writing the word 'star' in katakana changed the meaning from 'celestial object' to 'celebrity'. The first such star that Kuroba had seen had been Saguru. The detective could only assume that the last two lines were some misleading humour on the magician's part because he certainly wasn't going to let himself be stolen away.

Kenda turned away to stifle laughter while Saguru took a leaf out of Kuroba's book and maintained a strict poker face. "It is not," he told the inspector emphatically, replacing the card on the table. It was closely followed by a small box, just large enough to fit comfortably in one's palm. "The jewel from the Incan exhibit," Saguru explained, using it to head off the inevitable question of, 'Well, what _does_ it mean?' before it could be asked.

Nakamori snatched the box up and took off the lid. "How? When...?" he stammered.

The blond huffed through his nose. "It was put in my pocket overnight." During his night-time hospital visit, he had no doubt.

The inspector shot him a narrow look but didn't question him further. He replaced the lid and set it on the desk with a decisive smack. "About time he returned it. I thought he'd send it back when he told us about the clock tower."

Saguru's lips twitched. "Perhaps he had other things on his mind and forgot?" Now that the shouting had stopped, the task force personnel were beginning to trickle back into the room. The diamond replicas rattled in the background as they were swept up. "Beside the heist, did anything happen during my absence, Inspector? Any progress in locating the shooter?"

Nakamori shook his head. He sat heavily in his chair, glaring at the bouquet. "Not a single, damn thing," he grated out. "And Kudo's gone chasing after a murder again."

"Kudo?" His eyes widened a fraction. "Not the same Kudo who is the author of the Night Baron series?"

"I don't know about that. He's about your age."

Must be a son, then. Intriguing as that titbit was, Saguru had homework to complete. He gestured to the flowers. "Would you like me to take those?" Nakamori nodded stiffly and let the detective take them away.

He was careful not to let the roses be crushed on the train ride home. Disregarding the stares he received, he tapped a short text out.

> _That was a poor April Fool's joke, Kuroba._
> 
> _Didn't like the roses?_
> 
> _I am just glad you did not deliver them directly to the house. How did you do it? You were in class all day._
> 
> _Secret ;)_

  
Of course it was.

 

"Thanks for coming out to meet me, Hakuba-kun." It was the Thursday after Kid's April Fool's prank. Aoko and Kinko greeted him outside the ticket gates, in Ekoda station's concourse area.

"It was no trouble. Thank you for indulging one of my whims." He tilted his head towards the clock towering above them as they stepped outside. The scaffolding was still in place but was supposed to come down in the next two days. Inspector Nakamori and his team had discovered the owner's fraud: they had sold the tower to the other party on the basis the precious stones in the hour hand were real when in fact they were not. The original buyer had rescinded their purchase and the city had stepped in to purchase it cheaply. The tower was now to remain a permanent fixture of the city.

What Saguru was interested in right now was not the tower itself, but the flight path Kuroba - Kid - had taken as he fled the heist.

Beside him, Aoko fidgeted. She and her daemon traded a nervous look. "Hakuba-kun, what-- what do you think about Kaito?" she asked in a rush.

He glanced her way in surprise. "What do I think?" he repeated.

"I mean... As a friend. Or a rival." She made an aborted gesture with her hands. "Or anything."

The detective frowned to himself. "He confuses me," he admitted.

"Confuses?"

Saguru nodded. He began to walk to the street Kuroba had said he had fallen at. "He has a brilliant mind but refuses to apply himself seriously to his lessons. Instead he" - _moonlights as a thief_ \- "wastes time on childish pranks and picking fights."

He expected Aoko to vehemently agree with him. He did not expect her to fall silent. The blond took several steps ahead before realising she had stopped. He came to a standstill and regarded her with some worry. "Aoko?"

She jumped. Her eyes flicked up then back down. "Um, Saguru, you've seen Kid up close, right?"

Only every day at school. "Why do you ask?"

"Do you think he could be Kaito?"

Saguru was taken aback. Of all the words to come out of her, he was not prepared for that question.

"Why do you think he might be Kid?" he asked to stall for time.

Aoko crossed her arms and stared at her feet. "He always goes out when dad has to work late chasing that stupid thief," she said.

The detective watched her carefully, waiting for her to say more. "Is that all?" he asked a minute later, surprised.

She shook her head, rough jerks from side to side. "No! That stupid Kaito acts like Kid is so great and amazing. He used to only say that about his dad and he'd insult all the other magicians we went to see. What's so great about a thief who makes fun of the police? Even if his magic _is_ amazing or he returns everything he steals that doesn't mean we should cheer him on like he's some kind of hero!" Some passers-by looked offended by her rant and sent her glares as they walked past. "And Aoko-- Aoko..." She bit her lip.

Kenda shifted from foot to foot on her partner's shoulder. She cast a look behind them while the detective quickly thought of a way to navigate out of these dangerous conversational waters.

"I understand how you feel," Saguru tried. "The one thing Kid cannot return to you is the time he has stolen from you and your father. There is nothing wrong with being angry at him for that." He paused a little while to consider his next words. "However - and I think you realise this as well - there is someone out there who is trying to kill Kid. As much as the police would love to catch him, at the moment it's more important to find whoever is trying to kill him." The blond's lips twitched. "Besides, as you said just then, he may be a thief but he does return what he steals. If he did not, I would be less inclined to turn a blind eye to his activities for the moment."

Aoko and Kinko wore matching scowls. It amused Saguru how they bristled like cats, uncomfortable though it made him to have to play a delicate line between outright lies and half-truths. There was, for the briefest moment, grudging admiration towards Kuroba for holding out as long as he had without breaking down and confessing to his childhood friend.

"I am sorry," he continued in an attempt to placate. "I do not approve of his actions either. Rest assured I will do my utmost to keep him in handcuffs when we have found the shooter." _And I'll make him apologise for all the tears you've shed when it happens._

Aoko's mouth thinned. "You still haven't said whether you think Kaito is Kid or not."

"I do not have evidence that he is anyone I know." Saguru resumed walking. They had blood samples, yes, but he didn't know if the records had been tampered with. It was unlikely Kuroba had left them alone. Then again, hacking into the national police database might leave an electronic trace which could be followed back to the magician. As for the hair Kenda had found, it was compromised evidence due to he and Kuroba being classmates.

Aloud, Saguru continued, "It would be remiss of me to cast suspicion on any one person with nothing substantial to back my claim."

"I'm not asking you as a detective, stupid." He could hear her annoyance. "What do _you_ think?"

Saguru cast a rueful look at her. "Please do not ask me questions I cannot answer, Nakamori-san," he said quietly.

Aoko fell quiet. Her silence allowed him to think about how Kid had flown his glider and mark possible positions where a sniper had a good view of a hang-glider's flight path. It was difficult to do so from the ground so Saguru began searching for a way to discreetly climb up to one of the roofs of the nearby buildings.

"...What are you doing, Hakuba-kun?"

"I need a higher vantage point." He found an external fire escape stairwell and jogged up the stairs. Kenda flew ahead, spiralling as high as their bond would allow her to go.

"Why?"

"A hunch." They emerged on to the roof. It was an unremarkable roof, with nothing to set it apart from any other apart from one thing.

"Miniscule traces of blood," Kenda informed him after examining the entire surface. "Might be his, might not be. Also scratches left in the concrete from something metal."

"Whose blood?" Aoko asked, peering over their shoulders.

"Kid's," Saguru said shortly. He straightened and she had to back up a step to avoid collision. Kenda flapped hard to gain his shoulder once more.

"Why would Kid's blood..." Aoko trailed off, glancing at the clock tower. It peeked between two office buildings.

"He fell here." He walked to the edge of the roof and carefully peered down. At the edges of the alley, he saw grey coats whisk out of sight.

"Kenda," he said quietly. She nodded sharply.

"They've been watching us since we got to the street," she muttered. "Just watching."

"What's wrong, Hakuba-kun?"

Saguru turned back to Aoko, quickly pasting on a smile. "Nothing. Shall we head back? I am satisfied with what I've found here." _They can't try anything in a public area._

They reached street level without incident and Saguru set a brisk pace to the train station. Kenda kept watch for him, squeezing his shoulder whenever she caught a glimpse of the men. Whether it was the presence of other people or whether the men in grey were just content to watch, they all reached the station safely. Aoko tugged on his sleeve at the entrance.

"Hakuba-kun, wait--"

"I'm really sorry," he apologised, "I advise you head home immediately. Is your home far from here? I can walk you home if need be."

A female voice spoke up. "I'll take her."

Saguru startled, hand almost going to the revolver he kept secreted inside his suit jacket. Koizumi had appeared so suddenly that not even Kenda had noticed her. She took to the air with a surprised shriek. The falcon on Koizumi's shoulder watched the other bird-daemon circle, visibly amused.

"Akako!" Aoko exclaimed.

Saguru composed himself. "That would be very kind of you, Koizumi-san."

The young woman smiled at him and gestured imperiously to Aoko. "Come, Nakamori-san."

Kenda landed on his shoulder again as the pair walked off. One of the grey-coats peeled away to follow the two women while the other continued their casual observation of Saguru. The teenage detective clenched his fists: it was the worst-case scenario. Both he and Aoko were being watched. Was it because of their respective parents? Because they were involved with Kid?

He went inside the train station and noted how he wasn't followed into the concourse. Perhaps it was too hard to blend in on the train. Whatever the reason, he breathed a sigh of relief when the doors closed and there was no sight of any conspicuous followers, grey coat or otherwise.

 _The game is taking a turn for the serious_ , he thought grimly.

 

"--because no DNA was found at the scene, it's incredibly hard to tie anyone to the shooting at the Ooshima Art Museum. I examined the company's record of her work hours and it seems she was a casual employee scheduled to work on the following days--"

Saguru was surprised to see someone his age standing at Nakamori's desk, delivering a report as if they were a recognised officer of the law. The brief was succinct, thorough, and to the point. The owl on their shoulder rotated her head towards Saguru and Kenda upon their entrance and fixed them with a calculating stare. Her human continued his report, unperturbed.

"--you'll find that the hours coincide with Kid's heists," they finished.

There was dead silence in the office. The inspector was the first to recover his voice: he slammed his fist into his desk with an exultant "Yes!" and a triumphant spark in his eye.

"Well done, Kudo!" He noticed Saguru hovering near the door and gestured at him to come closer. "Hakuba, good timing! This is Kudo Shinichi, a high school student like you. Kudo, this is Hakuba Saguru from England."

Kudo grinned cockily at him and stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you," he said in passable English. There was an American flavour to the accent.

Saguru's eyes roamed over Kudo's appearance, from his slicked back hair and cowlick at the back, down to his slightly-off nose, attached earlobe, and sharper jawline. The fringe was just so, the eyes a different shade of blue. Saguru catalogued at least eight different spots where Kudo and Kuroba differed facially but it was still an uncanny resemblance.

Nakamori cleared his throat and Saguru realised he was staring. "My apologies," he said, also in English, taking Kudo's proffered hand with a smile. There was a wealth of information there too: warm, firm (confidence or self-assurance), no callouses like Kuroba had (does not do much manual labour), fingertips slender (plays instrument). Slightly worn-out fabric around the knees indicated a lot of movement in the area (played a ball sport; possibly football) and the variation they wore of the usual gakuren suggested they attended a prestigious school.

Intelligent, fit, _and_ cultured. Saguru thought he might like them.

There were identical smirks on their faces when they each surfaced from their private analyses.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Saguru said sincerely.

With introductions out of the way, they all pored over the information Kudo had brought with him. It was by far the most revealing evidence of anything that they had so far. The other teenager had an impressive eye for detail and a meticulous memory.

"I recommend interviewing the ones who hired her and see if we can get more information about her background," Kudo stated. "Someone also needs to put pressure on the higher-ups in the company and squeeze out why they felt the need to employ a hitman. If that doesn't work or they come out with the standard denial then we may have to do our own digging. I don't think I need to tell you all to be careful."

The inspector and his men nodded. They were all huddled around a central table with stills from the CCTV footage at the Ooshima Museum showing the woman they had spent weeks chasing after.

"Should we have some people look into the scene of her murder?" Saguru asked, leaning forward to tap a point on the map that had been shoved to one side. "Estimating from the flow of the river, her approximate time of death, and the weight of her body, we can easily narrow it down to within this vicinity." His finger traced a circle around a section of the river.

"There's no way that's possible," objected one of the officers.

"No," Kudo said, "it makes sense." He flashed a sharp smile at Saguru before picking up a red marker. "Have a few people search the river bank from here" - Kudo drew a line cutting the river - "to here." Another line; he capped the pen. "If you don't find anything, keep moving downriver. She won't have entered the water from farther than here." He tapped the first line he had made.

When Kudo was done, he left the men to quibble over details and excused himself - he had a prior appointment with a friend he had to get to. Everyone had been rejuvenated by the new information and the office turned into a hive of positivity after Kudo's departure. Saguru, not being an official part of the investigation, had not been delegated nor volunteered for any work. He stood out of the way and watched with quiet amusement as two officers collided in their excitement and sent official papers flying everywhere.

"Time for our own private investigation, wouldn't you agree, Kenda?" he asked his daemon in low tones. Division 2 could investigate the pharmaceutical company while they sought out the men in grey.

An interview was scheduled with a representative from the company's human resources sector. Explanations were sought, given, scrutinised. Teams were organised to scour the banks of the river the dead woman had floated down but they found nothing until Saguru suggested using black light at night. Kudo persuaded them to try the idea and, after copious amounts of grumbling, one of the teams found a large patch of grass which glowed inexplicably. Division 2 had never been as busy as when there was a heist notice from Kaitou Kid - which was just as well, since the thief was being oddly (not oddly, Saguru thought, thinking of Kuroba's broken arm) quiet.

All was going well, it seemed. Until two weeks into the investigation of the company, when Kudo vanished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daemons mentioned:  
> Assassin from Incan jewel heist - Rose-crowned dove
> 
> (Chapter was a bit late this time because I got sick. Hope people don't mind my introducing a tangible antagonist; I do have an ending in mind for this fic so I needed to create an identity for the 'mysterious organisation'.
> 
> Regarding Kaito's April Fool's bouquet:  
> \- Twenty-one roses conveys 'commitment'  
> \- [Orange roses](http://www.roseforlove.com/the-meanings-of-orange-roses-ezp-29) convey, amongst other things: fascination, passion, friendship
> 
> I shall leave the exact interpretation of Kaito's intentions behind the bouquet/card up to you readers.)


	8. The Men in Black (and Grey)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: All I know about court procedure is from watching British crime drama, so I apologise for inaccuracies.
> 
> Minor fix made to previous chapter, where it was stated Saguru was sat behind Kaito and to his left - it was supposed to be to his right.

Aoko hugged her knees to her chest, eyes on two blue roses in a vase on her desk. The first one, long wilted, had been left on her bedside table one night; the second, beginning to show signs of its age, had been given to her directly by Kaito after Kid's clock tower heist.

'Please do not ask me questions I cannot answer,' Hakuba had said to her after she'd tried to press him about Kaito and Kid. She hid her face and shut her eyes. White spots turned into a white figure with billowing cape and daredevil grin. Her hands tightened; the figure turned and she could swear it was Kaito's face beneath the shadowed brim, behind the gleaming monocle.

"No!" she said stubbornly, shaking her head to clear the image from her mind. "Aoko doesn't want to believe it. I-- Kaito wouldn't lie to me. He wouldn't...!"

But he still wouldn't tell her why Kozare had changed. He wouldn't tell her where he went those nights when he wasn't home - and weren't those always the same nights Kid and her father were out?

'Because I'm his biggest fan!' she could imagine him saying. 'Of course I gotta go see him!'

But what about his pledge to catch Kid for her? _Obviously he can't, because he IS Kid._ "No!" she whimpered.

She knew already. She just couldn't bring herself to accept it. Not until she heard the confession from Kaito's own mouth.

Aoko curled up even tighter. No, Kaito would never say. Kaito would hide behind his laughter and his stupid smile and ask what the hell she was thinking. And then accuse her again for not trusting him.

'How did you fall?'  
'I tripped.'

Except it hadn't been a trip, had it? He'd fallen out of the sky...!

Something nudged her and she straightened with a gasp.

Kinko stood with his forepaws on the edge of her seat, watching her. "Ask him."

"Why? What's the point?" she whispered, knuckles white as she gripped her knees. 

"Because," her daemon explained patiently, "even if he lies to you, you will know it for what it is. If you never ask him directly, you will always wonder."

Aoko was silent for a long moment. "Isn't that the same as tricking him? Aoko doesn't want that. Aoko would rather not know."

The small bear wormed his snout beneath her arm, forcing her to look at him. "Aoko," he said, "how long are you going to ignore what's in front of you?"

She squeezed her eyes shut. A warm droplet leaked out the corner of one eye and curved down her cheek. More soon followed until she was sobbing quietly into her knees. Her daemon lapped them away as her shoulders shook, voicing no complaint when her fingers curled too tightly in his fur. They remained that way until Aoko had cried her fill, and then they huddled together on the bed to eventually fall into fitful sleep.

. . .

_"Could you please state your name for the record?"_

_"Wataru Saaya. I am in charge of Human Resources for LAL Pharmaceuticals."_

_"Ms Wataru, your company employed this woman, correct? If you could please give us details about her position amongst your staff..."_

Kaito listened to the police interview through earphones as he made dinner. It was a recording from earlier in the day, captured by the listening bugs he had hidden throughout the police department. While the woman was in the middle of explaining how she had no explanation for the coincidence that the police had unearthed about one of her employees, he heard his mobile phone shrilling from his schoolbag. He left Ko watching the stove and made a dash upstairs.

He paused the recording before answering his phone. "Hello?"

"Young master, I apologise for interrupting you."

"You didn't interrupt anything, Jii-chan, I'm just making dinner." Kaito hopped back down the stairs and returned to the kitchen. Nothing was burning. "Something wrong?"

"Well..." Seconds passed as Jii wrestled with whatever it was he wanted to say. "Do you remember that friend of mine, the professor who creates your equipment?" Ko's ears twitched and she sat up, alert.

"Oh, yeah. Did he do something wacky to one of the props again?" Kaito grinned as he stirred around some vegetables.

"No. He asked for your help."

The magician paused. "My help?" he repeated.

"Yes. One of his acquaintances needs help with their daemon. I'm afraid I don't know why. He said he would explain more in person."

"'Help' as in...?"

Jii's tone was grave. "I believe so."

Kaito pursed his lips as he turned off the stove, letting the food in the pan simmer. "When?"

"Tonight." Upon hearing Kaito's squawk he hastened to add, "It appears to be a very urgent matter."

Kaito frowned. He went to tip vegetables from pan to plate but changed his mind and brought out a thermal cylinder instead. "Where?"

Jii gave him an address in the Beika district. It wasn't too far; perhaps a ten minute train ride and about as long a walk if he didn't get lost.

"Tell him I'll be there in an hour," he said.

It took a bit longer to disguise himself this time. His broken arm was a hindrance in trying to dress and Ko ended up helping him drape a shirt over the arm he had in a sling. With some difficulty, he managed to pull a mask over his face and arrange a wig to his satisfaction. The professor might be Jii's friend but there was no way he was going there as himself.

When he was ready, he left the house in secret and journeyed to the address he had been given. Ko had been dusted with talcum powder as dyeing would take too long.

The house they found was not at all what they expected.

"The professor lives here?" Kaito muttered in surprise.

It was a proper mansion, with brick walls and a tiled roof, iron gates and a driveway. It must have cost a fortune to buy and maintain, especially in Japan where space was limited and in high demand. Not even his family's house could compare. There was creeping ivy over the bricks and the plaque next to the gates was weathered. If there hadn't been a light on in the doorway, he would have thought it was an abandoned ghost house.

'Kudo', the plate read. Not the professor's house then, but Shinichi Kudo's? The modern-looking building next door looked more like a professor-y sort of house, but this was the address he had been told to come to.

It would be rude to sneak in after being invited. He cleared his throat and rang the buzzer.

"....Hello?"

When Kaito spoke it was as a fluty alto suitable for the female persona he had donned. "Um, I was told to come to 2-2 1- _chome_ in Beika..."

"Oh! Oh, ah, yes. Come through, the gate is unlocked."

"Thank you." Kaito unlatched the gate and let Ko slip in ahead of him. He fastened it behind him and then approached the front door with Ko at his side. The door opened just before he reached it and a nervous, elderly man peered through the crack in the doorway. The magician decided a cheerful attitude was needed and put on a smile.

"Good evening!" he chirped, bowing. He lowered his voice and continued, "Jii said you had a little problem?"

The door inched open and furtive eyes skirted the darkness beyond Kaito. "Come in, please. I'll explain inside."

"Excuse me," he murmured as he crossed the threshold, Ko on his heels. He removed his shoes at the entrance even though the mansion had been styled after Western architecture.

The professor shut and locked the door. That made Kaito a little nervous, but on his way in he had counted numerous windows and a chimney amongst possible emergency escape routes. Gesturing, the older man led him further into the house to a large, two-tiered library. Heavy wooden shelves stuffed with novels of all shapes and thicknesses lined every available inch of the walls. A closer look showed them to be mystery novels, but he spotted the thick bindings of a set of encyclopaedias to his right as well as a small collection on forensics.

Kaito turned slowly on the spot, so impressed by the literature that he didn't notice the little kid and his owl-daemon coming out from behind a writing desk at the further end of the library until their high voice piped up.

"Who's this?"

He blinked. "Hey, little boy," he said, kneeling carefully. He was wearing a skirt; a girl wouldn't squat. "What's your name?"

Rather than answer, the kid glanced at his plaster cast then at the professor. "She's the friend?" he asked sceptically.

The professor nodded, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself: I am Professor Agasa Hiroshi. This is, um, Edogawa Conan."

The boy's eyes sharpened. It seemed to Kaito that when he looked at the magician again it was with a fresh gaze. It was a gaze that was far too canny for a child that looked about six or seven.

"Nice to meet you, miss," Edogawa said, sticking out his small hand for her to shake. Left hand since Kaito's right was out of commission. Kaito was surprised at the Western mannerism but grasped it gently.

"And you too, Edogawa-kun," he replied. He tried to pull his hand away but the boy tightened his grip.

"Professor, do you mind making some tea for us?" Edogawa asked, blue eyes boring into Kaito's.

The professor glanced between them. "Alright..."

The boy continued to grip Kaito's hand until after the elder man left. He spoke again once they were alone.

"You should probably take off the mask, miss. Or rather, 'mister'."

Ko twitching was enough to give the game away even if Kaito faked innocent surprise well enough. "'Mister'?" he repeated with a little laugh. "I think you're mistaken."

The boy shook his head. His smirk sent chills up Kaito's spine. "The way you're dressed is too haphazard. There's no consistency to the pieces you chose - probably because you came in a hurry after the professor called. Most people would have picked the first outfit they could throw on and that outfit would most likely be colour-coordinated. Instead, you're wearing a mismatched blouse and skirt." Edogawa pointed at the items in question. "Now, that alone doesn't mean you're not a girl. But you took the care to choose pieces that give the impression you care for your wardrobe. Anyone that meticulous wouldn't leave the house dressed so badly, even if they were in a rush. And they certainly wouldn't have forgotten to put cream on their hands before coming here. You've got slender fingers but they're pretty rough. Must do a lot of hands-on work with them, huh?"

Kaito stared at him. "How on earth...?"

Edogawa released Kaito's hand and shoved his into his pockets with a triumphant grin. "Ku-- Conan. Edogawa Conan. Detective."

Perturbed at being seen through, Kaito let his hand fall. Ko hung back uneasily. It was at that moment that the owl on Edogawa's shoulder, watching Ko more than he had been watching Kaito, whispered something into his human's ear. The boy's eyes widened. "Kaitou Kid?" he yelped.

Kaito spooked. He dropped a smoke bomb and fled.

 

It took Jii two days to convince Kaito to go back to the Kudo mansion. Kaito was shaken by the meeting. It was entirely different to how Saguru operated, piecing together research and cornering his target with hard facts. Edogawa read a man like he might read one of the many books in the Kudo library and stripped a person of their secrets through observation.

"He said the young boy is sorry for what he said last time, young master. He's begging you for your help," Jii implored him over the phone.

Kaito scowled. "That kid is way too sharp for his own good, Jii-chan. I don't like it."

"He promised they wouldn't pry into you no matter how you choose to appear. Please, young master..."

He sighed. "I dunno..."

Ko spoke up loud enough for Jii to hear. "Is it a life or death matter?"

While Kaito was shooting her a surprised look Jii fell silent. "...I believe it is," he said eventually.

"We have to go back, Kaito," she said, turning to him. "Even if he knows you aren't who you say you are, that's a far cry from knowing your face or name."

The magician chewed his lip. Ko nipped his sleeve. "The fact they're still asking _us_ for help, even knowing that we're on the other side of the law, means it's serious. They won't turn us in like Saguru and Watson."

"Hakuba, huh," Kaito grumbled. But he relented. "Fine."

They returned to the mansion that night. Kaito used the same female disguise as he had before but took into account the criticism he had received last night. Edogawa gave him a once-over when he saw Kaito and lifted his eyebrows as if to ask 'Really?' Kaito did the same, challenging the runt to criticise his outfit. Shaking his head, the boy took a seat. His owl settled on the armrest.

"I'm sorry about last time. It's a habit." Edogawa managed to look suitably apologetic.

"Has anyone told you it's an annoying habit?" Kaito asked primly as he kneeled on the floor, setting his make-up box on the carpet and opening it up. While the top trays were occupied with human make-up, the cavity at the bottom held jars of powder and dye for use on daemons. His daemon, to be precise, but it would do in a pinch for Edogawa's. "It's a wonder you have friends."

The boy watched as Kaito took out and scrutinised the coloured contents of each jar, holding them in the air beside his owl. A line of earthy greys and whites formed a short line outside the kit. "Don't take this the wrong way but... You _are_ Kaitou Kid, right?"

Prepared for the question this time Kaito only threw a shrewd glance his way. When the magician looked away without answering, Edogawa added, "Silence is as good as saying 'yes', you know."

"Why do you want to know?" Kaito eyed the owl-daemon and pointed at the floor. She lifted off the armrest and glided to the indicated spot. Taking out a brush, Kaito began to plot how he would transform the owl into a different species.

"I saw you at the clock tower. From a distance."

"Little kid like you out that late at night?" Kaito murmured an apology to the boy's daemon before he began to apply sweeping strokes to the owl's feathers. He made sure to move with the alignment of the feathers, knowing that to go against them might hurt the bird. Both Edogawa and his daemon shivered.

"I wasn't-- yes." The kid glared at his feet. "I was curious."

"What's that English saying? Curiosity--"

"--killed the cat," Edogawa interrupted, completing the saying in the language. "I know."

Kaito paused. That timbre just then was familiar. "So you know English. Clever boy."

"My parents took me to America." Edogawa shrugged. "I--"

A chime rang through the house followed by rapping at the front door. "Shinichi?" a female voice called. "Are you home?"

"Oh, crap," Edogawa whispered. His owl panicked and kicked itself into the air, sending Kaito reeling with a squeak. "It's Ran again, what do we do, what do we do?!"

"Girlfriend?" the magician joked, laying his brush down. Edogawa shook his head violently but the owl screeched "Yes!" loudly.

Loudly enough for Ran to hear from the front door. "Shinichi! So you _are_ there. Do you know how many messages I left you? You could have at least called!"

Girlfriend. Shinichi. Little boy with unchildlike intelligence. She recognised the owl's screech. Kaito snapped his fingers at Edogawa and spoke sharply. "Picture! Give me a picture!"

He received a wide-eyed, uncomprehending stare. "What?" Edogawa yelped.

"Family photo, anything! The most recent you have," Kaito snapped. He was already peeling off the wig and face mask and throwing off the blouse and skirt with Ko's help. A rag was tossed the younger boy's way. "And clean off your daemon while you're at it."

The owl caught the rag. Edogawa clawed out his phone and began rapidly scrolling through pictures while Kaito and Ko rushed upstairs to the bedrooms. It was easy enough to find Kudo's room. They raided the closet for the first outfit Kaito could find before flying downstairs again to wrestle everything on. Curse his arm, it made everything clumsy and slow. He could hear the pounding getting louder and Ran's voice growing more impatient.

A phone with an image of Kudo was thrust into his face. "Good enough?" Edogawa asked, pale-faced.

Kaito stared hard at Kudo's image. He could get away with the face. This Ran wasn't Hakuba (hopefully). It was the hair which needed work. He hurriedly combed his hair into a more tameable mess with one hand and used a bit of gel (sourced from a hidden pocket) to keep it all in place. In less than a minute he looked the spitting image of Shinichi Kudo, high school detective. So much so that Edogawa was gaping.

"You, what was your name?" 'Kudo' asked, pointing at the owl. Both boy and daemon jumped. Even the voice was the same and there was no sign of any voice-changing equipment.

"Hakken."

Kaito tapped his shoulder. "Here." The daemon went rigid with shock but Kaito didn't have time to be respectful of boundaries. "Do you want her gone or not?" he hissed.

Hakken flew to his shoulder. Edogawa jumped out of his seat and hid behind a nearby door as 'Kudo' hurried to placate an impatient Ran.

"Are you going to let me in or not, Shinichi?" she demanded in a 'I will kick the door down in five seconds' voice. There was a heavier snort and rattle of antlers against wood.

"Wait, just wait!" 'Kudo' yelled in well-crafted exasperation. He wrenched open the front door and had to work hard to contain his shock. He thought he was looking at Aoko for a moment, but this young woman was stern rather than angry. A moose filled the space beside her. "Geez, you're loud. You know how late it is?"

"I was worried about you! You just left me at Tropical Land and disappeared. You didn't even call." She was stepping inside before Kaito could object and gasped upon seeing his cast and sling. "Your arm!"

"Huh? Oh." He forced a laugh. "I fell, don't worry about it."

"What happened, Shinichi?" she insisted, coming forward. Kaito took a step back.

"I'm fine!" he protested, hand held up to stop her. Hakken's talons squeezed his shoulder. With no padding beneath, Kaito winced as the claws pricked his skin.

"Ran-nee-chan!" piped up a young voice. He and Ran glanced down to see Edogawa, grinning his hardest. "Shinichi-nii said I could come stay with you from tomorrow!"

"Oh, really?" The young woman shot Kaito a narrow look. Kaito gulped.

"Y-yeah. I've been really busy lately so I can't leave this kid all on his own in a big house like this," he laughed nervously.

"He's had a _looot_ of cases from Mister Megure," Edogawa agreed, spreading his arms above his head to demonstrate. " _This_ many!"

"And I'm actually exhausted from working them," Kaito quickly added. He threw in a smothered yawn to seal the act. "I'd really like to get some sleep in. I promise I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

Ran, given no chance to get a word in, looked at a loss. "Well..."

Kaito made himself smile. "Seriously. First thing in the morning."

Her eyes lingered on his plaster cast. The magician silently thanked his lucky stars when Ran nodded. "Alright." She began to turn, hesitated, then shook her head and returned his smile with a weak one of her own. "I'll pick up Conan tomorrow morning."

Once she had been waved off, Kaito shut the front door, slumped against it, and slid to the floor. He dragged a hand down his face and didn't react to Hakken vacating his shoulder for Edogawa's. From around a corner, Ko poked her head out.

"So that's your real face, huh?"

Kaito peeked between his fingers. The little kid's face had grown serious again. Kaito hunched his shoulders and looked aside, trying to shadow his features with his hand.

"I've only seen one person with a face like mi-- I mean, Shinichi-nii's," Edogawa corrected himself.

He huffed a laugh. "May as well stop pretending. I dunno how it happened, but you're Kudo, aren't you?" Kaito asked.

No reply. No denial either. Kaito lowered his hand and eyed the shrunken detective. "Silence is as good as saying 'yes'," he mimicked. Then continued normally: "Got a little too curious about something? I'm guessing it happened at Tropical Land."

"Don't avoid the question," Edogawa - Kudo - said. "I saw you at the police department."

"You memorised my face in one glance?" Kaito muttered, feeling even more self-conscious. _And you're avoiding my question as well, Mr Detective._ Ko loped over to him and pressed against his side. He ran his hand down her fur until he felt calmer.

Edogawa shrugged. "I've got a good memory for detail. Besides, when I first met Inspector Nakamori, he pointed at me and called me 'Kid'. He wouldn't have had that reaction unless he'd seen Kid's face up close." Steely eyes zeroed in on the magician. "And there's no way there's a third person with a face like mine in this city. The odds are too huge."

"Could be wearing another mask," Kaito challenged. The detective rolled his eyes.

"You'd have torn it while taking the other one off." Edogawa started to walk back to the library. After a pause, Kaito got to his feet and followed.

"Wouldn't be so sure about that," he murmured, already thinking of ways to affect a double-disguise. Perhaps using some sort of glue to make sure the first mask stayed to his face when the second was pulled off?

"Anyway," Edogawa continued, halting by the abandoned make-up box, "I don't know your name, and like I said before, I won't ask. I need you to show me how to disguise Hakken so Ran doesn't find out about me."

"It's not just Ran you're hiding from though, is it." Kaito didn't have to beckon Hakken over; the owl came of her own accord this time. He began to reapply powder and dye. "Who shrunk you?"

"I don't know." Kudo clenched his fists. "They wore black coats and black hats. One of them had long, silver hair. I remember their faces but I don't know their names."

"They'll stick out like sore thumbs then," Kaito remarked.

The boy warned, "They think I'm dead. If they see you they might think you're me."

"Wouldn't be the first time I got mistaken for somebody else."

"This isn't a joke!" Edogawa exclaimed. "You have to be careful! You've already got someone gunning for you and these men in black aren't some casual hitmen for hire."

Kaito looked up. "Detective," he said, "I always take my work seriously, whether it's stealing or dodging my enemies' bullets." A flicker of a smile crossed his face. "Including yours."

The boy folded small arms across his chest and scowled. "I made sure to aim away from anyone that might be behind the sheet."

"Mmhm. I'll have you know I almost _died_." Kaito clutched his chest. "Hundred metre drop and no safety line, no room to glide because of your helicopter..."

"Oh, shut up." Edogawa looked a bit ashamed now. "I saw you flying away afterwards. You were fine." His eyes strayed to the cast though.

"Heartless, detective. Heartless." Kaito winked at him and put the finishing touches to Hakken's plumage. "Tada!" he sang, flourishing the brush. "Unrecognisable, right?"

The shading of Hakken's plumage had altered to more closely resemble the Great Horned species of owl. Kaito could do little about the fluffiness of her belly feathers or her size: points which Edogawa did not fail to point out and criticise.

"Hey, birds are tricky," Kaito grumped at him. "You're probably going mess up my work entirely when you touch her up so I don't wanna hear you complaining. The only way to fix this is with an adhesive and that's going chafe both you and your daemon after a few hours, so unless you're as good an actor as I am..."

They spent another few hours together in the library, with Kaito showing the kid how to apply the paint he had used on Hakken's plumage and the best products to use to achieve the effects necessary. The magician then gathered up all his possessions, including the discarded pieces of his former disguise, and disappeared for a few minutes to wipe down fingerprints and put back his borrowed clothing. When he came back, dressed in plain black, he found that Edogawa and his daemon had already helped him bring his kit to the front door. He snorted and shook his head as he approached.

"No, no, not leaving the same way I came in. Your men in black aren't going to tail me back to my place if I can help it." He retrieved his shoes, shouldered his bags and grinned at the pair while Ko attached herself to his side again. "Well then, kid, it was a pleasure meeting you."

Kaito dropped a small capsule from his sleeve as he bowed. It burst open upon hitting the floor and released a thick cloud of smoke. When it cleared, the magician and his daemon had vanished.

Outside, Kaito slunk through the trees behind the Kudo mansion as he pulled out another set of clothes from his bag. By the time he and Kozare returned to the street, he was a middle-aged man taking a night-time stroll with his daemon. The dim light made it easy for Ko to pass as a wizened dog without additional make-up.

"Now," he muttered, "we've got two sets of people to look out for. Our grey coats and the little detective's black coats. Who should we go after first?"

"Grey," Ko immediately answered. "They're trying to kill us and Akako."

Kaito chewed his lip and didn't respond. His daemon gently butted her head against his leg. "He'll be fine," she said firmly, referring to the detective they had left behind. "You put one on him, right?"

"Yeah." Shaking off his unease, he turned on his tracking device to make sure everything was functioning then switched it off again. As he placed it back into his pocket he heard someone jogging up behind them.

"Wait, stop! Hold on..."

It was the professor. "Can I help you?" Kaito asked in his guise's voice.

Wheezing, the old man thrust a package at him. "You... asked for... these. Might as... well give them... in person."

Kaito hesitated before accepting it. "Thank you."

The professor winked at him and straightened with effort. "I'm looking forward to your next appearance," he chortled. Then he jogged away, puffing and wheezing, back to his laboratory.

Kaito stood for a moment, watching, before a lopsided smile tugged at his mouth. "C'mon, Ko. Let's go home and sleep."

. . .

A month passed with no heist notices from Kid. The police department worried at the silence. Frequent glances were thrown at Nakamori, who had grown antsy last time the thief had taken such a long hiatus, yet there was no impatience now. Whether that was due to the work they had interviewing and pressuring the pharmaceutical company or not, Saguru caught one or two comments about the inspector's new, serious demeanour when he had reason to visit.

Unfortunately, LAL was remaining stubborn regarding their knowledge of the murdered woman. They insisted that her actions had been independent and unrelated to them. As there was nothing other than circumstantial evidence to prove the police's case or to disprove LAL's statements, Nakamori and Megure had to ease off and focus on the forensic side of the investigation.

While that went on, Saguru pursued his own line of enquiry.

It was late into the month of May - almost June - by the time Saguru stood before a towering, glass-fronted office building in the Shinagawa ward. He had his hands in the pockets of his most formal suit and Kenda on his padded shoulder. The formal dress was for a trial that would take place in a court all the way back in London and it was due to start at 6pm, Japanese Standard Time. He would be giving testimony via video link. Technically there was no need for him to skip school today, but it provided a convenient excuse for truancy.

He was in front of the nondescript facade used by LAL Pharmaceuticals. Unlike those around it, the building bore no outward sign of its affiliation with the company. There was nothing to advertise its name or any outstanding features that might mark it apart from its neighbours save for, as Saguru had just determined, the lack thereof. While not suspicious on its own, Saguru had to wonder why the men in grey who had first followed him weeks back appeared to originate from its doors.

The one responsible for the attempt on Kid's life had been employed by LAL. The ones who had been monitoring him were also somehow related to LAL. What Saguru was missing was the 'why': why did a pharmaceutical company have an interest in the phantom thief? Why were they trying to kill him?

Tilting his head up, his eyes caught sight of the pale underbelly of a falcon circling on a rising thermal. He shifted, glancing around him at the busy throng of white-collar workers headed for lunch. Although he was sure that he and Kenda had abandoned their watcher in the crowded train station, there was no telling if they had acquired another.

He glanced again at the bird, shot a wary look at those within hearing distance, and then spoke in a low voice. "Koizumi?"

It seemed to him that there was a shiver in the air. The hairs on his arm rose. Beside him, his crimson-haired classmate appeared.

No fanfare, no smoke or confetti. She had not been there, and now she was.

Saguru's eyes went wide but she placed a cool finger on his lips before he could utter a sound. Some of the more observant pedestrians did double-takes and threw a second look over their shoulders after they had passed. However, none seemed willing to dwell on the obvious impossibility: people couldn't just materialise out of nothing; as with Kuroba's magic, there was always a trick.

Yet the detective was currently finding himself at a loss for an explanation.

"My, that's the first time anyone's noticed me." Koizumi removed her finger and swept long hair over one shoulder. She batted her eyelashes at him. "You called?"

"Yes, I-- no. How...?" Saguru stuttered.

"Well, as Kuroba likes to put it: 'magic'," she said, wriggling her fingers. The way she did it was almost mocking. She lowered her hands and folded her arms loosely. "How did you know I was there?"

"Your daemon. But, but what you did just then--"

"I told you: it's magic."

"Magic doesn't--" Saguru pressed his lips together. Akako's expression soured.

"Exist?" she finished for him, tossing her head back haughtily. "Oh, but it does. Kuroba demonstrates it daily," she said bitterly.

It seemed there was history there. The detective took a deep breath and let it out. "Why are you following me?"

"Keeping an eye on you," she corrected. "I'm sure our magician friend has his own methods, but I'm an old-fashioned girl."

Something clicked in his mind. "Then at the station...?"

She winked at him. His shoulders slumped and he gave a rueful chuckle. "Did you notice my and Aoko's followers?"

"Nakamori-san is perfectly fine. They aren't interested in her or her father." The witch purred, "You, on the other hand..."

Not interested in Aoko? Why had they been following her then? "I am capable of defending myself," he said stiffly, a light flush on his cheeks. "I studied fencing and boxing back in England."

The young woman shrugged and looped her arm through his. She began to tug him back to the Shinagawa train station. "These are not very nice people, Hakuba-san. You may have lost one man, but did you notice the other?"

Saguru jerked and forced himself not to look about. "What?" he hissed.

The falcon he had seen circling above dipped towards them and alighted on Akako's other arm. "Cafe, sunglasses, laptop," the daemon said. Saguru spotted them from the corner of his eye and cursed under his breath.

"Luckily for you," Akako continued, "I do have some information that might help. I had Lucifer look into the man who tried to follow me home." The smile on her face was not pleasant. "Try investigating someone named Inutsuka Tsueba. He's the one who ordered that we be followed."

 _'Us'? 'Lucifer'?_ "...Thank you." Saguru threw her an unsure glance. "Have you recovered from...?"

Akako laughed. "I am far sturdier than my predecessors, Hakuba-san. But thank you for your concern." She released his arm and he blinked. They were already at the train station. "I shall see you in class," she said, trilling her fingers in goodbye. A large crowd from an incoming train passed between them. When they cleared, she was gone.

Saguru stared at the spot she had been, dazed. Magic, mysterious men, and an organisation which created miraculous beauty products. He almost wished he was back in England.

The train journey back to Ekoda took less than half an hour. Saguru bought a takeaway meal from a street vendor and arrived at the courthouse early so that he had ample time to eat, mentally prepare, and neaten his and Kenda's appearance before the appointed time. They wouldn't be called immediately, but they did have to be waiting on-hand.

There was a television screen for him to watch the trial on. The table he was sat at had a camera and microphone for when he was called upon as witness. The room itself was small, but not claustrophobic, and had little in the way of distraction. Saguru's fingers drummed a restless beat against the table while he watched everyone settle into their seats.

"All rise for the Honourable Cassandra Smith."

Saguru almost stood as well before he remembered where he was. Half-risen from his seat, he sat back down with a thump as the judge entered and was glad no-one was watching him just yet. A sleek feline walked by her heels and leaped on to the judge's desk. Upon the corner, he sat and surveyed the court regally while his human took her place.

"Isn't she the one who presided over our last case?" Kenda asked. Saguru nodded.

"Yes." The court was seated and the trial began.

The prosecution and defence made their opening statements. The latter was impassioned, a tad strong but radiating confidence; the defence by contrast was calm, steady, reasonable. Fielding, as the detective presiding over the case, was asked to take the stand first and summarise the incident.

"State your name and profession for the record."

"Hamish Fielding. Detective Inspector at New Scotland Yard."

"Detective Inspector Fielding, please give an overview of the case to the court."

"On the morning of January 18, the body of Harold Smith was found in his home at Stanmore. He had been stabbed several times in the throat and then stabbed once in the chest. Cause of death according to the autopsy report was blood loss. He had been dead for approximately ten hours before his body was discovered, placing the time of death between 2am and 3am. We arrested and charged Thomas Lane based on evidence recovered from both his and the victim's home."

"Thank you. The prosecution may begin their cross-examination."

Saguru knew this routine so well he could almost predict the questions that would be asked. He shut his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and listened to the back and forth rally between witnesses and lawyers. After the finer details were dragged out of Fielding and both prosecution and defence ran out of questions, Fielding was dismissed and the eyewitness called up.

The blonde detective exhaled and Kenda shifted on his shoulder. They knew the minutiae of the case. This witness' testimony wasn't in any way decisive and, as expected, the defence attorney ripped it apart like tissue paper.

Saguru's turn came after a brief examination of the autopsy report.

"The prosecution calls Saguru Hakuba to the stand."

He sat up straight. Kenda echoed his movement, alert, yellow eyes on the monitor. The dark square in the corner became a thumbnail of him. His image was now being streamed to the courtroom and all heads were turned in his direction.

"State your name and occupation for the record, please."

"Saguru Hakuba, third-year high school student at Ekoda High and private detective," he answered promptly.

"Mr Hakuba, please tell the court your role in the investigation of the accused."

"I was brought in as a consultant by DI Fielding a week into the police investigation of the incident. They requested my help in locating the weapon used to murder the victim. I was accompanied by an officer at all times at the crime scene as well as during my examination of the body."

The prosecutor only asked for clarification on Saguru's findings: what he had concluded, how his logic had run, and so on. The cross-examination was passed to the defence once they were satisfied. Saguru readied himself for their probing as the attorney stood, arranging their notes on a small podium.

"Mr Hakuba," they began, "let me first thank you for giving us your time. I know you must be busy with school - busy enough that you were unable to be physically present for this trial."

The detective replied while Kenda hunched on his shoulder and stared intently at the attorney. "Not at all."

The man paused as if expecting him to explain further, but when Saguru remained silent he pressed on. "I'm sure all of us here are familiar with your work. The West End kidnappings, the Liverpool murder, the case of the unwound clock - very quick work, very astute. You solved crimes that had the police baffled for weeks."

"This is a cross-examination, Mr Hilford," the judge reminded him. "Not a congratulatory ceremony for private investigators." Saguru's mouth twitched.

"I apologise, Your Honour." The man cleared his throat. "Now, Mr Hakuba, you said that you found the murder weapon, my client's switchblade, in a flower vase. What prompted you to search it?"

"Mr Lane glanced at it while being questioned about the murder," Saguru replied without missing a beat. "I decided that it was worth checking, as the police had not yet done so."

"He had 'glanced at it'," the attorney repeated, sounding sceptical. "No blood was found on the knife in question, however. Correct?"

"That is correct. However, a preliminary luminol test showed that it had had blood on it previously. Apart from the obvious attempt to conceal the weapon, the length of the blade matched the wounds left in the victim, strongly suggesting that it was used in the murder," Saguru explained.

"But no DNA could be found to prove this?" the other man pressed.

The corners of Saguru's mouth turned down. "Unfortunately not."

The attorney nodded to himself, looking pleased as he shuffled some papers aside. "Mr Hakuba, do you like magic?" they asked suddenly.

Taken aback, the detective said without thinking, "What does that have to do with the case?"

The judge intervened as well. "Mr Hilford, this court will not take kindly to having its time wasted with irrelevant queries about the witness' hobbies."

"Your Honour," Hilford said, "if you would allow me to continue, you will soon see the relevance."

Saguru couldn't see the judge. He only knew that there was a pause before she eventually said, "Very well. However, I warn you to be succinct in your questioning."

"Thank you." Attention was on Saguru again. "Mr Hakuba?"

Saguru composed himself before answering. "I have an interest in it, yes."

"I believe you are currently pursuing a thief known as" - the man peered at his notes - "'Phantom Thief 1412'? Is this correct?"

Where was this line of questioning going? "Yes."

"Neither you nor the local police appear to have been successful in apprehending them, however." The judge must have been giving him a stern look because the attorney glanced in the direction of the bench then hurried on. "My point being, would it be fair to say that you have had to learn this criminal's behaviours in order to better pursue them?"

"That is true for all serial offenders, not just 1412." The detective felt a weight settling in his stomach. "And is also hardly confined to myself."

"I have here," Hilford brought a sheet of paper forth from amongst his notes, "a statement from a woman: one Jennifer Miller. She claims that you pickpocketed an item of hers some weeks ago." The man looked up at Saguru. "Is this true?"

Kenda squeezed his shoulder to the point where he was sure she had drawn blood. The polite smile on his face froze in place. "That is correct. I returned the item to her, however."

The court erupted into murmurs. Saguru didn't need to see the self-satisfied look on Hilford's face to know he had fallen into a well-prepared trap. He minded that less than the news that _Miller_ had told him about his light-fingered moment. Why had she done that?

He wound back his attention as the attorney built upon this revelation, the argument going that Saguru could not be trusted to have not planted the switchblade in the vase during the police investigation. Hilford tried to go further and suggest that perhaps all of the cases Saguru had been involved in were compromised, but the judge firmly brought the topic back to the immediate case. The attorney had to be satisfied with calling for a re-examination of the switchblade by forensics - which was accepted.

With his cross-examination done, Saguru was allowed to step down as witness. He leaned back in his chair to watch the rest of the trial. It concluded with the judge ordering proceedings be suspended for the day, to continue next week. When the detective was sure the connection had terminated on his end he let out a hefty, frustrated sigh, rubbing at his eyes with the back of a hand.

"I don't understand," he whispered.

Kenda murmured agreement and comforted him by running her beak through his hair. "We can email Jennifer when we get home and ask what she told him."

"Mm." Saguru stood and traipsed to the door. He informed the relevant people that he was done with the room, wrapped up the associated formalities and then stepped outside into the warm, pre-summer night air.

"It is disgustingly hot," he muttered, tugging at his collar. Kenda was poised to answer him but then two dark figures and their daemons stepped across their path, blocking the way forward.

Saguru halted, eyeing them. Kenda whispered, "Another two behind." They were enclosed.

"I don't have time for this," Saguru muttered before raising his voice. "Who are you and what is your business with me?"

"Our business," said one man, "is to make sure you keep your mouth shut."

Saguru narrowed his eyes and shifted his stance as the men closed in on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daemons mentioned:  
> Professor Agasa Hiroshi - unknown  
> Ran Mouri - Moose, 'Kaou' 花王  
> Shinichi Kudo > Conan Edogawa - Owl (Blakiston's fish owl > Great Horned owl), 'Asa' (deliberate pun on 'Arthur' because he's unimaginative)
> 
> (I'm sorry this chapter was so late! Various real life things caught me up. I'm working on the next one but I won't be able to churn these out once a month like I was earlier. The Blue Birthday heist will be coming up soon - if not in the following chapter then the one after it!)


	9. Live and Let Lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Infiltrating enemy headquarters was never going to go as smoothly as planned. Nor were some lies.

A brisk rapport of shoe heels echoed down the corridors as a woman in a starched lab coat strode through. In the crook of her elbow rested a clipboard attached with formal papers regarding a death row inmate about to be executed. Dark eyes parsed the information without a change in expression, pages whispering as they were flipped over. When she was done she let her hand, with the board, fall to her side. The daemon padding by her side remained impassive.

Automatic doors hissed open upon her approach to the execution chamber. The inmate was already seated, restrained by cuffs and straps. His daemon was in the hands of an assistant and it was struggling fiercely. The man writhed in his seat, pleading.

"Let her go, please, let her go," he sobbed.

The woman ignored his pleas and signalled her assistant. They brought the daemon to a silver cage on the opposite side of the room across from the prisoner. It was a fair distance, one that would stretch the bond between man and daemon as far as possible. The pain had to be on the threshold of mental and physical torture for the procedure to work.

The setup was simple: on one side, the restraining chair; on the other, the cage; and in the middle, a sharp guillotine with a blade made of a titanium alloy. Various other components spidered away into the ceiling, but those three formed the core of the machine.

The daemon did not let itself be shut away without a fight. It bit the assistant's fingers. They released it with a hiss and the daemon dropped to the ground running. Before it had gone several bounds towards its human half, a heavy paw trapped it, wriggling, to the floor.

"Be careful, Miyano," the woman warned as her daemon brought the prisoner's one back to the cage.

"Sorry, ma'am." The assistant moved away once the cage was shut and went to stand beside the switch that would activate the device.

The woman checked that everything was in order before nodding. "Release it."

The sobs of both man and daemon turned to cries as the crescent blade plunged down and sheared through the space between them.

In the silence that followed, Ko watched from a vent in the ceiling as they removed the prisoner from his seat. The man was pliant now. Distant. He responded easily to the scientists' commands and moved where they wanted him to without complaint. But most disturbing of all was his daemon, who was wailing as they took her out of the room. Ko's line of vision was confined by the vent's grating but she could see the man show no discomfort at having his daemon removed.

The sight roiled her stomach. It was unnatural, whatever they were doing. Her claws skittered against metal as she inched through the narrow chute. Below, the woman's voice began ordering for the next subject to be prepared. Spotting the small square opening that was the other end of the vent, she shoved her head out and shot frantic glances up and down the corridor.

"Kaito!" she hissed, wriggling out properly. He had to be nearby since she couldn't feel any chest pangs. She heard voices down one end of the corridor. Rough, male - not Kaito. Fearing the worst, she slunk towards the sound and peered around the corner.

There was a burly man with his back to her. Kaito sat on the floor against the wall with his hand on his head, eyes cast down. A gun was pointed at his head and the man was demanding answers.

"How did you get in, boy? Tell me!"

Her other half remained tight-lipped. The man's sleek, black Doberman growled and took a menacing step forward. Kaito glared at the dog, unwavering even when the man took the safety off his firearm.

"If you answer, I'll be merciful and shoot you instead of handing you over to our labs. You won't like what they do there. You'll wish I'd shot you," they threatened.

Ko's lips lifted off her teeth. She bounded forward, snarling, and crashed into the Doberman before either they or their human could react. Teeth closed on her flank. In return her fangs sank into the daemon's foreleg, producing a round of vicious thrashing from the dog. Fur and red sparks flew as they fought and she dimly sensed Kaito putting up his own struggle until a shot rang out. The wind from the pellet stirred the fur of her pelt and struck the floor. In her surprise, her jaws loosened and the Doberman wrested free. She was about to leap after them when--

"Ko, stop!" Kaito yelled. She whirled around and saw her partner restrained by the man again. The gun was at his temple. Kaito looked angry but she could feel his fear. Her fear. For him. He was a bird with a broken wing, less mobile with one arm than with two. Ko snarled and put back her ears but stayed put.

The man gestured with his chin. "Walk."

Ko fell in beside Kaito as they were escorted at gunpoint. They were pushed along to the laboratory that Ko had been spying on earlier. When they entered, the one who had been giving the orders earlier flashed her and Kaito an annoyed look which quickly transferred to their escort. Of the original prisoner, there was no sign.

"Who is this?" she snapped.

"Spy," the man grunted, shoving Kaito forward. Ko stuck close to her partner's heels.

The woman's gaze sharpened and she turned her eyes on them. They narrowed. "Miyano!" she said, snapping her fingers at the masked assistant over by the machine. They hurried forward, magpie daemon swooping down to land on her shoulder. "Take him and his daemon to block four. Get someone to examine them."

"Yes, ma'am." Miyano took firm hold of Kaito's good arm. Ko was shepherded by her daemon while Kaito was dragged along, token resistance stifled by nails digging into his skin. They left the room and walked in stiff silence down a straight corridor, past numerous doors marked with numbers and letters. Ko tried to read a few but the damn magpie kept getting in her way.

Giving up, she focused on their escort. Long, dark hair, grey eyes, a small mouth. She had been the one to get bitten by the prisoner's daemon before. The marks were still on her fingers. Ko observed how quiet she was, how firm her grip was on Kaito - overly so, as if not confident in her strength.

"...You aren't a bad person."

Miyano glanced sharply at Ko then away. She pressed her lips together and said nothing. The daemon tried again, ignoring the wide-eyed look Kaito shot her.

"You could pretend we put up a fight. Gave you the slip." Ko couldn't say why she felt like this woman could be an ally. "We can make it look real."

The woman's eyes darted to the ceiling. It was camera-free, but she clearly expected someone to be watching or listening. Her dark hair swung as she twisted around to see if anyone or any daemon was nearby.

"We're underground," she hissed, facing forward once more. She was marching them slower, giving them a bit more time to talk. "How are you going to get out even if I let you go?"

"How do you think we got in?" Ko bared her teeth. "We'll manage." Kaito's shoulders slumped and he uttered a little sigh. Maybe it wasn't quite as simple as she was making it out to be but she was confident in their earlier planning.

Miyano was hesitating. Ko waited while the magpie whispered into his human's ear. Whatever he said, she shook her head and flashed frightened glances over her shoulder. This continued for several minutes. Kaito began to shoot Ko frightened looks of his own as they rounded the corner. If they couldn't win Miyano over, they had little chance of getting out.

Finally, Miyano gave a reluctant nod. "Do what you have to do."

"Thank you," Ko said quietly. She met Kaito's eyes. Her other half grimaced then swung around without warning. His left fist connected with the side of her head, sending the scientist crashing into the wall.

Her daemon loosed a screech then abruptly lost height. Ko caught him on her back and lowered herself quickly so the senseless bird could slide to the floor. Kaito did the same for Miyano.

"I really wish we had some knockout capsules on us," Kaito muttered, shooting the unconscious scientist a guilty look as he shook out his hand.

"Well, we didn't, and we didn't have any other options." Ko nudged his leg. "Let's go. Quickly."

Their escape was mostly unimpeded. It seemed that the late hour had sent many workers home already. Really, the only people they had to look out for were guards.

"Hey, you! Stop!"

 

They fled down a corridor away from the shouts. Everything was stark white here, lit by painfully fluorescent lighting which, with Kaito's black gear, caused him to stand out just as well as Kid's outfit did on a moonless night. If they couldn't reach one of their planned exit points before security locked everything down, Kaito knew he would find himself in an unmarked grave.

The layout of the floor was clear in Kaito's mind. He followed memorised paths, fear lending a burst of speed to his heels. Oddly enough, the eerie silence frayed his nerves more than the threat of capture. Most security teams comprised of hunting dog daemons and those daemons were usually barking and baying during the chase. Right now Kaito could hear nothing except human voices giving directions, feet pounding and claws skittering.

So many questions and no time to find their answers. Kaito wasn't sure he would be able to sneak in the same way again. The security system was a lot better than the most secure banks he had tested his skills against. They would probably find traces of his intrusion and have counter-measures ready next time.

Somehow they managed to evade their pursuers and flee up the emergency stairs leading to the ground floor. They shoved open the door and began to dash out into the foyer, only to freeze in dismay.

A row of security personnel were already blocking the front entrance. They all carried guns and they and their daemons scanned the foyer in alternating sweeps. It didn't take long for Kaito and Ko to be spotted and for shouts to be raised.

"Back!" Kaito yelped, turning towards the stairs.

A flash of red lightning cracked down on the pavement just outside the revolving glass entrance. He almost tripped over Ko as whole panes of glass shattered at once, blown inwards by the force of the strike. He and his daemon hit the marble floor, Kaito throwing his arms around Ko as wind and shards scattered over them. His ears roared from the blast; afterimages of the light burst in his eyes as he squinted towards the wide-open entrance.

He couldn't tell if he was imagining the figure standing outside the ruined foyer. Whoever it was, they were approaching him.

Kaito staggered to his feet. He stood in front of Ko, shielding her from the slender silhouette. Each blink brought the figure more clearly into focus. Eventually his jaw dropped.

"You!" he thought he exclaimed. They hushed him with a finger to his lips. Their mouth moved but he couldn't hear what they were saying. Realising this from his puzzled look, they took his arm and pointed outside. Kaito hesitated then nodded.

Broken glass made a dangerous carpet of the foyer. Kaito hefted Ko into his arms and hurried after their rescuer. The pieces crunched under his boots, mixing with the dazed groans from blinded, deafened men.

They couldn't avoid being spotted by frightened passers-by as they fled. The lightning strike's echoes would have been heard across Tokyo. Kaito wrinkled his nose at the strong, lingering scent of ozone as they and their saviour fled into the shadows. After several minutes of running they found shelter in an alley several blocks away from the LAL building. Here, they paused to catch their breath.

"What the hell was that about, Akako?" he hissed. Some of his hearing was returning. Slowly.

"Lucifer said your life would be cut short tonight." She tossed her head but her expression was troubled. "I couldn't allow that."

"Well, thanks. I guess." Kaito straightened and leaned back against a wall. Exhaling, he let his eyes slide shut and waited until he could hear police sirens in the distance before speaking. "Got any other pearls of wisdom while we're here, o consorter with demons?"

"Yes," she snapped. "'The hawk dares hunt where carrion birds eat and seeks the fruit of its labours.'"

"What the _hell_ is that even supposed to--" Kaito shut up. Hawk? That could only be one person. He began to rummage through his pockets. "Where's Hakuba?"

"I don't know."

"Weren't you keeping an eye on him?!" He pulled out his tracking device and waited impatiently for the thing to zero in on the Brit.

Akako scowled. She exclaimed something but he wasn't listening.

"Little brat at the Mouris, fine," he muttered. "There!" Next to the court house. He could be there in twenty minutes if he took the train and ran. But would that be soon enough?

"Should've brought the glider--" Akako grabbed his good arm.

"No! Don't fly. Don't fly at all from now on! 'When the black bird next spreads his wings, a viper will rear its head and strike at his heart.' Lucifer said that too!"

"Does every warning from you have to be cryptic?" he exclaimed, shaking her off. He and Ko began to run for the station. She shrieked after them.

" _I'm serious - you'll die!_ "

He and Ko rushed through the concourse, attracting several startled looks from late-night commuters. It was tempting to leap over the gates, but Kaito didn't want to attract even more attention. He swiped through and rushed to the platform in time to meet a train pulling in.

Having to stand still while they sped towards Ekoda was an exercise in patience. Kaito fidgeted while Ko paced in a tight circle. As soon as the doors opened they were the first out. Bursting from Ekoda station and on to the street, they ran flat out towards the courthouse while the clock tower they had rescued chimed the late hour.

 _Almost there_ , Kaito thought, as the dark silhouette of the courthouse approached. His lungs were beginning to burn and he could also hear Ko panting. They veered around the corner and were brought up short.

It was not the sight Kaito expected to see.

Hakuba whipped around at the sound of his running, fists up. The detective's suit was scuffed and rumpled with the top button undone, tie loosened. He looked like he'd been in a brawl.

Clutching a stitch in his side, Kaito's eyes dropped to the four unconscious, handcuffed men with their daemons on the ground and amended his thought. Hakuba _had_ been in a brawl.

"Are you alright?" he gasped. He sucked in a deep breath and continued with a jerk of his head, "Who are they?"

Hakuba's wariness vanished once he realised who he was talking to. He lowered his fists and whistled sharply. From above, the blonde's hawk streaked down and alighted on her partner's shoulder. The pair gave Kaito and Ko appraising looks.

All at once, Hakuba's face darkened. "Were you working?" he snapped.

Taken aback, Kaito retorted on the defensive. "Wha--? No!"

Hakuba strode forward and made a grab for him. Kaito slipped away easily, backing up two steps from the detective and his hawk.

" _You're still wearing your brace, you imbecile!_ " Hakuba shouted at him in English. He made a second attempt to catch Kaito's uninjured arm and succeeded. Still in English, the blonde continued to yell, " _You should be at home making sure your damn arm heals properly, not sneaking around the city doing God knows what! Do you not want the full use of it again, you bloody, idiotic fool?_ "

Kaito gaped at his classmate. "I know what I'm doing...!" he began to object, only to be overridden.

" _Sometimes I wonder if you do!_ " Hakuba's grip was vice-like. Kaito winced. "Did you know Kudo has not been seen for a month?" the other teen hissed, reverting back to Japanese. "Are you aware of _exactly_ how much alike you two are in appearance, Kuroba?"

The magician's mouth hung open. He hadn't considered how Hakuba, looking at this from the outside, must be seeing events. Hakuba didn't know that Kudo had stuck his nose where he shouldn't have and then gotten into far deeper trouble than he'd anticipated. Hakuba thought that Kudo had been snatched in relation to his - _Kaito's_ \- case.

Between his wide eyes and his silence, Hakuba must have thought that he had gone too far. The detective released his shoulders and took a step back, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I apologise. I got carried away." Cool, professional, but also distant. Kaito scowled. This time he was the one to grab Hakuba. Perhaps he moved too suddenly though - Watson pecked his wrist and Kaito snatched back his hand.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, staring at the daemon. Ko voiced similar surprise in the form of a whine. Hakuba looked mortified.

"I'm very, very sorry," Hakuba began, but Kaito punched his shoulder to shut him up.

"Stop that," he growled. He tossed a look at the unconscious men. "Are you gonna leave these guys here for their buddies to find?"

"No..."

"Then call the police already." Kaito prodded him in the chest. "And then after you've done that, you'll invite me to dinner at your place because your poor classmate finished work late and just happened to be in the area. Got it?"

Hakuba looked bewildered at this turn of events but he nodded. Satisfied, Kaito moved away. "Wait, where are you going?" the detective asked.

"Changing clothes," he said over his shoulder. "I'll be right back."

There was a set hidden in the shadow of the courthouse - one of his many emergency clothing caches. One casual, one formal in case he had to pose as someone officious. He struggled into the first outfit with help from Ko's teeth and returned in time to hear Hakuba signing off on a call to the police department. The detective slipped his phone into his pocket and looked the magician up and down.

"What?" Kaito demanded.

Hakuba shook his head and huffed through his nose in a way that Kaito had learned meant laughter. "Nothing. Only..." The blonde cast another glance over him and his gaze lingered on Kaito's ear. He shook his head again. "Nevermind."

If there was one thing Kaito couldn't stand, it was not knowing. He bit back a comment and turned aside. A hand mirror found its way to his hand and he checked that there was nothing wrong with his ears until the sound of police sirens and flashing red lights approached. Then the mirror got stowed in his pocket and Kaito hung back while the police took the unconscious men into custody. He crouched by Ko, rubbing her neck as Hakuba was quizzed on the night's events.

"Are you sure you're not hurt, Hakuba?" Nakamori finally asked at the end of all his other questions. Hakuba nodded.

"I'm fine," the detective responded crisply. "I'll take the train home with Kuroba."

Nakamori looked unsure, but he cast a look at the handcuffed men in coats. "Alright. You call me or Megure if anything else happens, you hear?"

"Of course."

Hakuba returned to the magician and his daemon. "Well, Kuroba," he said in bland tones, "would you care to join me for dinner?"

Kaito smirked. "I'd _love_ to."

 

He had been by the Hakuba residence and its attached state-of-the-art laboratory before. You know, for research. "Know thy enemy" and all that. However, Kaito had stopped short of breaking in and leaving bugs in the personal residence. Bugging the house of the superintendent general was a far more serious matter than eavesdropping on an inspector's office.

Stepping inside was like entering that fancy hotel the Duchess of Sabrina had stayed in. Marbled floors, varnished wood, paintings hanging at intervals from creamy walls. Hell, there were even vases of flowers. Fresh flowers. It was smaller and cosier than Kudo's place but no less impressive.

He slipped his shoes off by the door and murmured the customary phrase. Hakuba led him to the kitchen without turning any of the lights on.

"Sit anywhere you like." The range hood light was switched on, providing a dim, orange glow of the kitchen bench opposite. Kaito sat there, Ko curled by the legs of his chair, and Watson flew to a nearby perch while Hakuba searched his fridge for microwaveable dinners. "Aoko tells me you dislike fish. Will chicken katsu be adequate?"

Kaito couldn't quite stop his face blanching. Hakuba, however, was not facing him as he held out a plastic tray (Watson was preening the underside of her wing). Whether or not that was deliberate, Kaito voiced assent. Hakuba made his own choice and set the first to heat up. Then he took a seat opposite Kaito at the bench, hands folded, composed.

"Now that we're alone, would you care to explain what you were doing before we encountered each other?" the detective asked in a mild tone.

The wording caused Kaito to bristle. "We're not running this like an interrogation, Hakuba."

The other teenager stared at him, at once confused and exasperated. "Kuroba, we are not at the station. There are no wires or listening devices in this household. Anything you say here will not be used against you in a court of law."

Kaito rolled his eyes and waved his hand. "See, that's what I'm talking about. Would it kill you to drop the act for a little while?"

"Act?"

He jabbed a finger in the other teen's face. By the gods, did Hakuba really need this spelled out? "Can't you sound like a normal guy for five minutes? Every word out of you is like it's from a crime television drama. I know you're a detective, but sheesh!"

There was a pause filled with the sound of the microwave humming. Then Hakuba sighed.

"I'm sorry. I've grown accustomed to--" The Brit grimaced. "I shall try to be less...formal."

Kaito raised an eyebrow at him. Hakuba coughed pointedly. "I did say 'try'."

The magician huffed through his nose and leaned back in his seat. It was better than nothing. "Alright. Go on then."

"Thank you." Hakuba hesitated before ploughing on with his question. "You were looking for me," he began cautiously. "Why?"

Kaito drummed his fingers against the table. "I heard you might be in trouble," he said.

"Might be?" repeated the detective. The microwave pinged and Hakuba moved to take out the tray inside. It was shooed over to Kaito along with eating utensils before Hakuba set his own to heat. Kaito dug into his meal while the other teen sat back down.

"It was a very vague warning," Kaito spoke through a mouthful of rice. "You know, like those horoscope things. Beware of men in black, blah blah blah."

Both Hakuba and his daemon gave Kaito disbelieving looks.

"What?" he demanded. "I'm not joking this time! I got told you'd be in danger so I ran over!" Although he could hardly believe that he was taking Akako's warning seriously. She still wanted him, even if she wasn't using her powers to do so.

"Were you really or was that the conclusion you drew?" Hakuba queried in a dry voice.

Kaito opened his mouth. Upon thinking over what he'd been told again, he shut it and scowled. Crap, maybe he _had_ leapt ahead of himself. Akako had never said the 'hawk' would be in danger. Just that it was hunting something.

Hakuba shook his head. "Kuroba, while I'm touched you have such concern for me, it is unnecessary. I am used to it in my line of work."

"Yeah, well..." 'So am I', he almost said. Kaito bit his fork.

The microwave pinged again. Hakuba stood to retrieve his dinner and sat back down with a steaming tray of vegetables and rice.

"Normally I would have Baaya cook since you are a guest," the detective said, "but the hour is late and she is rather old. I'd rather she have her sleep."

"S'fine, this is good." Kaito had devoured most of his tray already. "I'm starving."

"What were you doing before you came to me?" Hakuba prodded again. "You were in a hurry - acting on a warning from someone, as you said. I won't ask who since I doubt you'd tell me." Kaito smirked. "You didn't have time to change and you ran a fair distance."

"No idea what you're talking about," Kaito said breezily. He shrugged at the detective's flat expression. "Look, it won't do you any good to know that right now. You can't even do anything with what you have."

"I could do more," Hakuba insisted. "The _police_ could do more if they knew what it was they were chasing."

Kaito snorted. "Sure. Because they're doing _so_ well catching Kid even with you helping them." He set down his fork. "You've got your own problems anyway. You should concentrate on them. Didn't you have a trial earlier? How did that go?"

"You're changing the subject."

"You're a creep who stalked me to my class. You can find out on your own." These were not answers he was prepared to give just yet.

Hakuba closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh. "Fine. Can you tell me whether the name Inutsuka Tsueba is familiar to you at least?"

Kaito had only a blank stare for him. "Nope. Not at all. Who's that?"

The detective's face fell. "Just a name I heard."

Ko's ears pricked and she sat up. "Heard from who?" Kaito asked.

"A source," Hakuba said vaguely. He smiled upon seeing Kaito's narrow look. "Magicians aren't the only ones who can keep secrets."

Well, if that wasn't infuriating then he didn't know what was. Hakuba seemed to have developed a mischievous streak while he wasn't looking.

They chatted a little while more but it was inconsequential and mundane. Kaito had not parted with much but it was all he was willing to part with. As soon as he got home, he tapped the name 'Inutsuka Tsueba' into a search engine. Nothing useful came up beyond something related to a historic sword. Deeming it unrelated, Kaito closed the window and sat back in his desk chair to think.

"Okay, so what are the most likely scenarios here?" he asked himself. He held up a hand and began to count. "One, he was leading us on."

"Not likely," Ko piped up beside him. "He's tricky but he doesn't play tricks like that."

"Two, it's some kind of trap and I just fell for it."

"But you honestly don't know anyone with that name."

"And three, he was genuinely asking." That was plausible. Ko nodded.

There was no point in losing sleep over an unfamiliar name. They left off wondering and decided to turn in for the night. Whoever this Inutsuka person was, they could wait until morning.

. . .

Inspector Nakamori's glare could have burned holes in the man across from him. Saguru maintained his poise, determined to seem like the adult of the two despite the wide gap in their ages. Not that it mattered much - their first suspect sneered at them.

"I don't know anything," they said. "I've never seen that kid until now. It was dark out, you know."

"When I asked what your business was with me, you stated it was 'to keep my mouth shut'," Saguru pointed out. The man sat back and crossed his arms.

"Nope. Don't remember saying that. Got any proof I did? Because unless you've got proof, the only one in trouble here is you. You're the one who assaulted us. I've got a lump on my head that isn't going fade for at least a week."

Saguru bit back a scathing response. Nakamori bristled beside him.

"What were you doing on that night then?" the inspector ground out.

The man shrugged. "Heading home after a night out with the boys. That a crime, old man?"

Saguru fancied he could hear Nakamori's teeth grinding.

After the interview was over and the man had been returned to the detention centre, Nakamori grabbed the nearest newspaper and ripped the entire thing to shreds.

" _Damn bastards_ ," he roared. "The nerve of them! Making fun of the police, that's what they're doing!"

"Inspector, please, calm down..."

While Nakamori's subordinates tried to placate him, Saguru was lost in his own thoughts. Two months prior, a woman had turned up dead in a river, shot by an associate. She had been linked to the shooting at Kid's heist in March thanks to Kudo but her employer, LAL Pharmaceuticals, denied any knowledge of her being a paid assassin. Kudo then disappeared a few weeks later. Inspectors Nakamori and Megure claimed Kudo had told them he was working on a separate, complicated overseas case but Saguru doubted his fellow detective would drop so completely off the radar. Such an ego would not allow it. And surely Kudo would have left him some sort of message if he intended to pass on the case.

This of course assumed that Kudo was still alive and the police were not being misled somehow. Whichever it was, Saguru couldn't afford to pry and draw attention to either himself or Kudo. Outside interference wouldn't be appreciated if it were a real case.

To the matter at hand, then: the men's claims aside, he knew that they _had_ intended to silence him. That suggested he was closing in on the truth. If they could only grasp some sort of lead, it could lead to a break in the investigation.

Just as he was thinking that, he overheard a pair of idle officers mention the word 'LAL'.

"Excuse me," he said, "did something happen to the company?"

"A bolt of lightning struck right outside their headquarters," one of the men confided. "Blasted their lobby windows right in." Seeing Saguru's dumbstruck look, they added, "There weren't any injuries since it was the middle of the night but there's a lot to clean up. No-one knows how or why it happened. Didn't you hear the crack?"

Saguru couldn't say he remembered. Then again, he had been in a brawl with four men. Some thunder a few districts away would not have caught his attention. He let the pair continue chatting as he continued towards the interview rooms, wondering if the incident was somehow connected to Kuroba's activities the other night.

For the next three interviews, Saguru and Kenda watched from behind one-way glass. The men's stories were consistent, all denying knowledge of Saguru's identity. He shared in the inspector's frustration as the day wore on with nothing to show for progress. Unable to prove a link between them and the shared case between Divisions 1 and 2, they had to class it as an unrelated assault.

While the bureaucracy maddened him, Saguru had long since learned to swallow such bitter pills as they came. Official denials didn't change what he had heard. He went home that day with a lot more caution, Kenda watching his back for the entire journey.

The next morning, he woke to a call from the police department. It was an officer in Nakamori's team.

"Hello?" he asked without thinking. It overlapped with the caller's greeting and he bit back a sigh. He still fell into that habit sometimes. "Sorry, go ahead."

"Hakuba, the men you caught - they were killed last night."

Cold flooded the pit of his stomach. "How and when?"

"Forensics is still working that out. They say it was poison though, ingested during a meal brought to them. The officer on duty is missing."

So much for their leads. He thanked them and set the phone back in its cradle. His hand remained upon it as the news sank in. Four men dead after failing to silence him. Although they had revealed nothing, their employers - assuming they had been hired - had killed them while they were still in police custody.

What was more, an officer was missing. Possibly whoever they had blackmailed or bribed into helping them facilitate the murders. Or perhaps they had been a mole. Saguru wouldn't be surprised if the latter were the case but he had to keep his mind open.

He checked his mobile notifications during breakfast. His father had already left and Baaya was elsewhere in the house keeping busy, leaving him alone at the dining table. Amongst a plethora of the usual work requests forwarded to him, he had two emails of note: one from Miller and one from his mother.

The email from his mother was simply a reminder to return home for the Paris Collection. Saguru grimaced. He had forgotten. He would have to take leave from his classes again. More importantly, he would have to leave behind Kid. Who knew what trouble that thief would attract once they had recovered? He swiped it aside for now, resolved to think on it and make a decision tonight.

The email from Miller was short.

> Sorry Saguru! I'm not supposed to talk about it (I'm a witness after all). But let's meet for a coffee next time you're in the country. ;)
> 
> \- J. M.

  
Saguru found himself puzzled by the latter half of the message. Miller didn't drink coffee; she preferred lattes. And she knew, of course, that Saguru took tea. Suggesting they go out for a coffee together was irregular--

Ah.

Smirking, he went back to his mother's message and typed an affirmative. Then he set a reminder for himself to book flights first to Paris then to London.

His mother only really required his presence for a few days for the obligatory show and tell between those participating in the Collection. Saguru disliked rubbing shoulders with those families in attendance but he would happily take the excuse to travel if it meant answers to questions he had. There were archives to rifle through in Paris and a conversation with Miller to cash in. Strike two birds with one stone.

But first, he had to address the case of the murdered men from last night.

Saguru and Kenda were greeted at the detention centre by a grim-faced member of Nakamori's team. "It's not pretty," they were warned before being shown to the holding cells where the men had been interred. Saguru could smell them well before he saw them. The face mask he was passed couldn't dampen the stench once he had it in his nose. Even Kenda hunched unhappily on his shoulder.

Body number one was splayed on the bed, wide eyes showing horror at the regurgitated mess that their owner was lying in. Indistinct lumps dotted the dark pool which had sunk into their mattress, ruddy patches splattered with undigested remains of food. It was this which was the source of the stench, Saguru was certain, since the body showed no signs of decomposition or defecation.

Trying to hold in his bile, Saguru turned to his escort with forced calm and asked, "What happened?"

"We don't know." His escort looked pale. Their daemon pressed close to his ankle and whimpered. "Excuse me."

They fled. Saguru heard them retching around the corner and couldn't blame them for it. His eyes swivelled to the scene again.

It was the same for the other three. Their grisly remains were arrayed to paint different pictures but all were identical so far as the end result was concerned.

"Officer, any new information since this morning?" he asked of the only man willing to remain near the corpse. Unfamiliar face; one of Division 1's personnel?

"The red liquid is definitely blood," they informed him. "We suspect the lumps to be organ tissue but we'll know for certain once forensics has processed it. Initial guess is that he and the others were fed a poison which liquefied their stomach. Ah, and when I say 'liquefied their stomach' I don't mean the contents." They levelled a sombre gaze at him. "I mean their stomach itself was liquefied."

"Liquefied...?" Saguru repeated faintly. He stared at the body. What kind of poison could do that? No, perhaps an acid? Impossible, he thought as he cast his eyes over their food tray. They had barely eaten anything. Whatever substance was responsible had been ingested in a small quantity.

His gorge rose the longer he lingered. Spinning away, he leaned heavily against the far wall and waited for his stomach to settle. Thank goodness he had eaten only a light breakfast before coming.

He left the forensic officers to their work and made his way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. A thorough forensic analysis could not possibly be completed so soon so he hung around Nakamori's office. To kill time, he asked permission to glance over the police archive. In particular, cases with deaths involving organ liquidation. There weren't many but Saguru pored over every detail, trying to find any common links amongst the observations which might shed light on the recent incident. He immersed himself so completely that he forgot to keep track of the time.

"...Shouldn't you be in school?"

Saguru looked up. Inspector Nakamori was standing over him with a frown. The sunlight had shifted and the nearest clock showed 2:41pm. He had all but missed school.

The young detective worked up a smile. "I apologise. I couldn't help myself. It isn't often a case challenges me."

"However challenging it is, I don't want you compromising your education." The older man bristled, serious expression matched by his daemon. "Genius or not, you're still under-age. It doesn't look good on your record when you skip school too often."

"I understand, sir." Saguru inclined his head and closed the file in front of him. Kenda bent her head and took it from his hands. She slotted it in amongst the pile for him. "I'll peruse these on the weekend."

"Hakuba-kun?"

The blonde turned in his chair. Aoko was standing in the doorway with Kuroba. Their daemons kept their respective humans between them. Saguru noted how Kozare threw glances at Kinko.

"Aoko, Kuroba," he greeted. He focused on Aoko first. "Are you here to visit your father?"

"No, we came to see _you_ , idiot," she said. She marched over and punched his shoulder. "You haven't been to school for days! Kaito took notes for you. Didn't you, Kaito?"

She said it like a threat. It didn't take Kenda's eyes to see the tension between the two. Kuroba produced a file ( _from his sleeve?_ ) and held it out for Saguru to take.

"Here."

Kuroba's manner was cool and distant. So he was back to acting like they weren't friendly? Saguru ignored his tone and took the file. "Thank you," he began to say, before they were interrupted.

"Hey, hey, Inspector Nakamori! Inspector Megure says to tell you that he has a lead on-- huh?" A child about six or seven years or age blinked up at Kaito. Wide glasses framed bright blue eyes and an owl sat on their shoulder. "Shinichi-nii?"

Saguru threw a sharp look at Kuroba. The magician either ignored him or didn't notice the look, staring instead at the child.

Before either of them could say anything, Nakamori interrupted. "You were saying, boy?" he asked roughly.

"Oh!" The child beamed up at him. "Inspector Megure says they caught a guy. Takeshi-something! He was acting _really_ suspiciously outside the detention centre before and after and they're gonna interview him soon!"

 _Why is this child the one informing the inspector of this?_ Saguru stared hard at the young boy and his bored-looking daemon. And how did he know Kudo? Come to think of it, there was something familiar about them both...

Before he could put his finger on exactly what, Kuroba crouched in front of the boy, hiding most of him from view.

"Thanks for letting us know, kid," Kuroba said. He somehow twisted a flower into his fingers: a delicate, pale blue rose lacking its thorns. "Here, for you."

The boy's eyes grew wide. He took the flower and grinned at Kuroba. "Thank you, Mr Magician!" And then he darted between their legs and vanished outside. Saguru could hear him calling out to someone called 'Ran'. His caretaker probably.

Strange boy, he thought. Though he'd looked amazed at the trick, his owl daemon hadn't appeared very impressed.

Nakamori cleared his throat. "Alright, everyone! Keep working until I return. I'm expecting the toxicology report to be in by five o'clock this afternoon, let me know when it comes in, Sensui. And does anyone know where the hell Sakamoto went?"

Grumbling, Aoko's father strode out of the office after sparing a brief hug for his daughter on the way out. Saguru got up from his chair, kneading his back.

"Shall we walk to the station together?" he asked. Kuroba waved off the offer.

"No thanks, I've got a bit of work to do." Without further ado, he and Ko sauntered out of the office, lifting a hand in farewell as they went. Saguru stared after him before focusing on Aoko.

"Would you like me to accompany you, Aoko?" he asked.

Now that Kaito was gone she seemed subdued, but she nodded. Saguru straightened his clothing and walked her out of the building. She was silent the entire time.

"Aoko," Saguru said eventually, "must you really maintain your silence with Kuroba? Surely this fight is not worth your friendship."

He heard her sniff and looked towards her in alarm. Tracks of tears were running down her cheeks. He hurriedly tugged out a packet of tissues and offered it to her and she used them to dab at her face.

"Kaito... Stupid Kaito still won't talk to me," she whispered. "I just want to know he's okay. I want to know he's not, not hurt, or sad, or-- something else." Aoko sniffed again and hid tearful eyes behind a tissue. "I used to know whenever something was wrong. Even when his dad died and he would smile that stupid smile and pretend he was fine, I knew he wanted to cry. He'd hide in my room after school. Sometimes he stayed there all night. So I, I know - I _used_ to know when he was upset, but now..."

She shook her head. "You know he's got that stupid poker face, right? That's all I see these days."

Saguru couldn't think of anything to say to comfort her. It was not for him to give up Kuroba's secret. Instead he wrapped an arm around the younger girl's shoulders and waited until she had calmed enough to speak again.

"Kaito _is_ Kid, isn't he."

It wasn't a question this time. She said it quietly enough that the nearest passers-by couldn't hear. Saguru still took a quick look around them to be sure and to give himself time to decide how to respond.

"Why do you think that?" The first time he had asked, her reasoning had been haphazard. Emotional.

She was quiet for a few seconds. "Kaito's daemon changed after Kid reappeared," she told him softly.

That was news to Saguru. He and Kenda glanced at each other, expressions grave.

Aoko continued, "When I first told him about Kid, he didn't act any differently. At least, I don't think he did." She looked unsure but pressed on. "It wasn't until the day after that he started acting weird. He stopped talking to me and he told me to leave him alone whenever I tried to ask what was wrong. He always looked tired, he started sleeping in class, and he--" She stopped abruptly, cheeks going pink. "He stopped flipping my skirt," she muttered.

Kenda shook out her feathers and straightened, looking aside. Saguru struggled with how to appropriately react to such a statement and settled for clearing his throat. "I...see," he said, keeping his voice stable somehow. "But your observations on their own are not evidence, Aoko."

"I know that!" she snapped, startling the detective and his daemon. She looked abashed straight away. "Sorry," she said, looking down at her own. "I... I noticed other things.

"Like him going out late whenever there's a theft. I thought it was because he wanted to see that stupid thief but... He went out even on nights when the notices weren't public. I didn't realise until I thought about it, but that's strange, isn't it?" Aoko sniffled. "He took me to a pool hall once. Not Jii-chan's - the one which had his cue before. I don't remember a lot because I-- I accidentally drank too much. But I know Kid appeared! And then Kaito vanished during the Christmas party at our house last year while Kid was stealing that big star. Then there was the baseball..."

"Baseball?" he asked, alert. That was the one theft he had not been able to understand.

Aoko nodded. "A boy dressed like Kid sent a notice to my dad over the phone that he was going to steal a home run ball from one of the players. Kaito and I were there. I told dad it was a joke but he said that Kid would come if they let it go through."

Saguru ventured cautiously, "The report said that Kid failed to steal the ball." Aoko hiccoughed a laugh.

"Dad said a little boy caught the ball that Kid shot down," she told him with a watery smile. "He said they were dressed like Kid."

Now the incident made sense. Saguru was impressed. He knew Aoko wasn't by any means an idiot because her classwork was always top notch. She could be childish but that childishness hid a mind almost as keen as her childhood friend's. Once she got past the hurdle of disbelief, logic easily led her to the one, unavoidable conclusion.

"Dad swears he saw Kaito's face one time too," she added, expression turning down again. "But he said he was wrong later."

The inspector had failed to mention that to Saguru and the detail had never appeared in any of the past reports. The detective frowned in thought, wondering why it had been omitted.

He almost missed how Aoko had fallen silent and that she and Kinko were waiting for a response from him. "I think you should talk to Kuroba about this," he said. "If you're correct" - _and I know you are_ \- "then he may feel less threatened talking to a friend than an enemy."

Aoko scrubbed at her eyes and shook her head. "Aoko tried," she muttered. "Stupid Kaito is avoiding me. Or he makes me mad and I forget what I wanted to ask."

Kenda sighed for the both of them. "I'll try talking to him," Saguru promised as they arrived at the ticket gates.

 

"Kuroba, I have to leave the country again."

The magician lowered his newspaper. It was the period before homeroom and the classroom was filled with a low buzz of morning conversation. "Okay," Kuroba said cautiously. "And you're telling me this because...?"

"It has come to my attention that your birthday is in June." Saguru raised an eyebrow. "As I will be in France until the end of that month, I thought I would do you the courtesy of informing you of my absence."

Kuroba stared at him before snorting and yanking his paper back up with a rustle. "Not like I was planning on inviting you to a party or anything, you prat. Geez."

Saguru smiled faintly, sharing a look with Kenda in the rafters. Her sharp eyes had spotted the magician planning in his notebook. "Be that as it may, I hope you'll keep me informed of Kid's exploits. I understand your brace is also due to come off soon."

"Yeah, soon I'll be back to making everyone's life more fun." Kuroba flashed a sharp grin over the top of his newspaper, to which the detective rolled his eyes.

"Jokes aside, Kuroba." Saguru turned sombre. "Please speak with Aoko before I return." And then lowering his voice further: "She knows."

The magician stiffened. "Knows what?" he asked warily. Saguru levelled an exasperated glance at him.

"She knows," he repeated. "I didn't tell her," he added, forestalling an outburst. The teacher entered then and he had to return to his seat. Saguru watched Kuroba's daemon shoot him constant looks throughout class and the rest of the day, yet neither of them attempted to make contact with Aoko. It made him sigh to see the magician disappear as soon as the bell rang the end of the school day but the situation was out of his hands now.

His flight was due out around noon that coming Saturday. Saguru, of course, packed well beforehand on Friday evening. Baaya drove him to the airport in the morning with enough time to check in his luggage and relax for an hour or so in the terminal. She would be staying behind in Japan since his trip was a short one.

He pulled out his phone and began scrolling through various newsfeeds. No new emails since early this morning and no texts from either Kuroba or Aoko. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. He had to confess to some disappointment that they still hadn't spoken to each other before his departure. The silence would only hurt them both more when Kuroba's secrets finally came to light.

When the boarding call finally came and still no word had come from either of them, Saguru reluctantly switched off his phone. All he could hope for while he was gone was that the pair stayed safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daemons mentioned:  
> Akemi Miyano - Magpie


End file.
